Mexico Federal Highway 8 to Puerto Peñasco

Mexican municipal, state and federal police park off the safety corridor near Sonoyta, across the border from Lukeville.

MEXICO CITY — Armed men threatened volunteer searchers who found dozens of bodies in clandestine burial pits near the near Puerto Peñasco, Mexican state officials say.

The "Searching Mothers of Sonora" group detected a clandestine burial pit over the weekend. The women were waiting for investigators when a group of armed men drove up and told them to get out, the Sonora state prosecutor's office says.

Excavations at the site were then carried out with police protection, the office said Sunday.

Investigators found four complete skeletons at the site this weekend.

In October, the same group of women found a total of 42 bodies and skeletons in mass graves near the popular beach town, also known as Rocky Point.

Drug and kidnapping gangs use such pits to dispose of the bodies of victims or rivals.


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