Mexican police discover mass grave containing 166 human skulls thought to be linked to cartel wars

Dozens of victims discovered in pits amid widespread cartel violence in Veracruz state

Workers examine the site of mass graves uncovered in the Mexican state of Veracruz (AP)

Mass graves containing the remains of at least 166 people have been uncovered in a region of Mexico plagued by cartel violence.

State prosecutors in Veracruz said on Thursday that dozens of skulls had been found in a cluster of 32 smaller pits following an anonymous tip last month.

Situated on Mexico’s eastern coast, the region has seen widespread violent crime in recent years due to its use as a pathway for drug gangs transporting narcotics northwards to the US border.

Veracruz attorney general, Jorge Winckler, told a press conference that the bodies had probably been buried for at least two years.

“Aside from human remains, we have found more than 200 items of clothing, 114 pieces of identification, as well as different accessories and personal items,” he said.

He refused to reveal the precise location of the graves, citing fears for the safety of investigators still working at the site.

Lawlessness in Veracruz spiked under former governor Javier Duarte de Ochoa, a member of Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto's Institutional Revolutionary Party who governed the state until 2016.

Mr Duarte is currently being held in prison, awaiting trial on allegations of involvement with organised crime and siphoning off millions of dollars during his tenure. He denies any wrongdoing.

Mr Winckler called on citizens with family members who had vanished to come forward for DNA tests in the hope of shedding light on the identity of those dumped in the graves.

The discovery is not the first of its kind in Veracruz in recent years – an unmarked mass grave containing the skulls of more than 250 people was found in the state in March 2017.

There were more than 30,000 murders across Mexico in 2017, the highest in a single calendar year since 1997.

Authorities have attributed the spike in violence to a splintering of cartels into smaller, more blood-thirsty groups following a decade-long, military-led campaign to battle organised crime.

More than 37,000 people are also currently unaccounted for across the country, according to Mexico’s national register of missing people.

However, the real figure could be much higher, with many people hesitant to report their loved ones missing out of fear of the cartels or believing police will ever investigate the case.

Additional reporting by Reuters