More than a dozen workers in Sinaloa have been missing for three weeks after an armed group allegedly linked to organized crime kidnapped them at their job site in the municipality of Concordia. Since then, the Mexican government has deployed hundreds of soldiers to assist in the search, though their whereabouts remain unknown.
Although authorities have not located the missing workers, they have dismantled nearly a dozen clandestine camps allegedly used by criminal groups in the mountainous area of Concordia, which the Navy said were used as temporary shelters by armed civilians.
During an operation in the town of El Verde, the Navy seized 1,600 rounds of ammunition, 46 magazines, one explosive device, four tactical vests and a ballistic helmet.
In a separate operation in the town of Los Naranjos, Navy personnel located and disabled 10 camps allegedly belonging to drug trafficking groups. According to authorities, the sites were used for rest, surveillance and territorial control in the mountainous region.
According to the Tijuana-based outlet Semanario Zeta, mobile armed cells operate in Concordia’s mountainous region, equipped with surveillance technology, radios, improvised explosives and makeshift barricades used both to ambush and to block federal authorities from accessing their territories.
Speaking to reporters on Feb. 5, Sinaloa Gov. Rubén Rocha Moya said state and federal authorities have intensified ground searches for the missing workers through a special operation involving more than 1,000 personnel from state and federal forces.
As of Feb. 6, relatives of the workers said they have received no proof of life or ransom calls. Authorities plan to maintain operations in the municipality of Concordia until they obtain solid information about the workers’ whereabouts, Rocha Moya said.
As noted by Semanario Zeta, the mountainous region where the operations are currently underway has for years been considered a disputed area among different factions of the Sinaloa cartel, fighting for control of trafficking routes toward Durango and the so-called “Golden Triangle” region, as well as clandestine airstrips, illegal mining used for money laundering and logistical refuge for armed cells.
The camps appear to be part of the infrastructure used by organized crime, adding weight to the idea that the workers’ disappearance is tied to drug trafficking violence in Sinaloa.
According to reports, the total number of people kidnapped is 14, although the Sinaloa Attorney General’s Office has said it has received formal reports for only five of them so far.
Originally published on Latin Times
