A total of 17 bodies have been recovered from a property in the Zapopan neighborhood of Colli Urbano, part of the greater Guadalajara area, in the two weeks since Jalisco authorities started digging.

The state Attorney General’s Office was following a lead in the case of two missing persons that took them to an abandoned house on April 4. An initial search revealed two corpses that forensic specialists estimated had been interred between two and six months before.

Investigators returned to the scene last weekend and found another 15 bodies after four days of digging.

Unofficial reports have identified the Colli Urbano home as a drug distribution hub that later became a burial ground used by a criminal gang to dispose of the bodies of rivals.

The Jalisco coroner’s office has so far identified two of the 17 bodies. All were male.

Governor Enrique Alfaro Ramírez reported last month that the number of missing persons in the state was 7,117, nearly double the figure reported by his predecessor, Aristóteles Sandoval Díaz.

Source: El Universal (sp), Zona 3 (sp), W Radio (sp)