A volunteer group searching for missing people says it has uncovered at least 1,600 baby teeth at a mass grave site in western Mexico believed to belong to children who were victims of human trafficking.
The group of parents, founded by former Michoacán congresswoman Margarita López, spent the last two weeks rallying outside Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office in Mexico City demanding genetic testing and identification of the teeth, but has so far been unsuccessful.
López told Mexican news outlet Milenio that her group, Buscando Cuerpos en Todo México, was accompanied by an investigator from the Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office during a search in the Michoacán city of Zacapu in 2021 when they spotted smoke rising from a hill.
They made their way to a property allegedly owned by a drug trafficker from Sinaloa, where they discovered what appeared to be human remains.
The official, identified only as “Braulio,” cleaned one of the teeth and determined it belonged to a child, according to López.
López, whose daughter disappeared in 2011 and whose remains were recovered two years later in another part of the country, continued canvassing the grounds for missing people and said she unearthed human bone fragments there over the years.
On Wednesday, the group found what appeared to be sets of baby teeth.
López suggested so far without evidence that the teeth belonged to children between the ages of 1 and 12 who may have been victims of organ trafficking or sexual exploitation.
The grisly discovery has yet to be independently confirmed through forensic testing, and federal and state authorities have not linked the teeth to specific victims.
The Michoacán State Attorney General’s Office rejected the claims in a statement Thursday.
“From 2021 to the present, no complaint, referral to authorities, or request for forensic intervention related to these events has been received,” the office said, adding that Mexico’s AG’s Office had not received any reports either.
López blasted the response in a country with over 130,000 people – including 18,104 children – missing.
“They want to downplay the incident, but the operation to recover the 1,600 baby teeth involved officers from the Michoacán State Attorney General’s Office — acting under an official assignment order to provide perimeter security — and everything is documented in the preliminary investigation,” she wrote on Facebook Thursday.
López also said a federal prosecutor and forensic personnel were present during the recovery.
“(They handled) the chain of custody for the recovered remains – I am not lying,” she wrote.
López has requested intervention from International Committee of the Red Cross to help with the investigation.
She also slammed Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum for remaining silent over the discovery.
“Ever since the story about the “1,600 little teeth” broke, they’ve either stayed silent or denied the discovery,” López said.
The Post reached out to Mexico’s AG’s Office and Michoacán’s State AG’s Office for comment. López didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment.
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