MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's attorney general, Alejandro Gertz, said on Tuesday that the ranch in Teuchtitlan, Mexico's Jalisco state, where human remains, piles of clothes and weapons were found last month was a longstanding operation and training site for organized crime.
The so-called "ranch of horror" was discovered in March littered with bone fragments, ashes and alleged makeshift crematoriums along with hundreds of shoes and backpacks, as bloody cartel violence continues to hit Mexico.
A large number of warheads, casings, operation targets, weapons and equipment used to train people were also found at the site, Gertz added during a press conference.
"It was a longstanding operation site, where people were recruited, trained and from where they went out to operate," Gertz answered when questioned about the links between organized crime and the ranch.
The attorney general also reiterated that the activities at the ranch and the people who controlled it were linked to the powerful Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), which authorities have accused of forcibly recruiting young people.
Jalisco is one of the states with the highest number of reported missing persons in Mexico, according to official data, and it is the home base of the CJNG.
(Reporting by Lizbeth Diaz; Writing by Aida Pelaez-Fernandez; Editing by Sarah Morland and Mark Porter)
