The continuous drug war occuring in Guadalajara, Mexico has taken yet another life as cartels turn what used to be a thriving city into a war zone. 

This is nothing new to Guadalajaran citizens, though, as the government is inefficient in maintaining control over the power of the cartels, Mexican police being always one step behind them. Many citizens are unbothered by the occurrences as they feel it doesn’t affect them directly, although most do not realize how close they are to the crime. 

In May of 2019, police observed a naked man with obvious torture wounds running through one of Guadalajara’s middle class neighborhoods before collapsing on a street corner. After questioning him and finding he was an escapee, police raided the house he emerged from and found something that many Americans only see in movies: nine living kidnap victims and the skulls of seven others–an extermination house. 

Neighbors claim to have never smelled any odd noises or heard screams, although frequent noises of mechanical drills emerged from the extermination house, and it was not being used for home renovations, they soon found out. 

In the weeks following this exposure, mass graves were found throughout Guadalajara, some containing more than 25 different body remnants, and another with more than 30, found in Zapopan municipality, which was then categorized as the largest (murder) grave in Jalisco history. This record was quickly topped as within the past two years, Guadalajara police have uncovered many more extermination homes and mass grave sites connected to them, scattered throughout the metropolitan city, raiding 29 more extermination houses before the end of 2019. By July 2020, a 50 person grave site was uncovered in Guadalajara, and a 100 person grave site was discovered just last month. 

The new cartel group responsible for these crimes, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (Known in Guadalajara as the CJNG) have sent Guadalajara into a violent, spiraling descent. 75% of those found in the mass graves had some connection to the cartel, although 25% had no connection at all, and were most likely only at the wrong place at the wrong time. 

The Jalisco New Generation Cartel is now responsible for 20% of all missing persons cases in Mexico, and that number is still climbing while the Mexican government remains uninvolved.