Mexican drug cartel members are getting rid of their victim’s bodies by renting out houses and burying the corpse in the backyard, often getting landlords into trouble. The trend to dispose of bodies this way got discovered recently, following one man’s surprising find.
Don Jose, a senior citizen who rents out a house in the Villa Juárez neighborhood, discovered a body buried in the yard with the help of a dog. After the dog came out carrying an oddly shaped bone, Don Jose found human remains in the backyard.
He began digging and soon asked the neighbors to call 911 because there was a dead body in the yard. State agents, trained canine forces, and forensic anthropologists invaded Don Jose’s rental home and began to look around. They also found five other houses with buried bodies nearby.
Don Jose got exempt from any charges due to his age, but the other landlords’ luck varied. Authorities arrested three homeowners, investigating two more, and looking for another two that are missing.
People assume the ones behind using rental homes as clandestine graves are the “Gente Nueva” branch from the Sinaloa Cartel. By doing so, drug dealers can torture, murder and bury their victims in one place while leasers deal with the consequences.
Neighbors mentioned they suspected criminal activity was going on in Don Jose’s rental home for some time. They claimed the different tenants were suspicious individuals going in and out, and they even saw a couple of law enforcement officers at one point.
Telling the cops about their suspicions never crossed their minds since they believed the people inside could belong to the police force. “It’s difficult to tell cops and criminals apart nowadays,” the neighbors claimed.
This article was inspired by DEBATE // El nuevo método de los cárteles para deshacerse de cadáveres.