(José Niño, Headline USA) A volunteer search collective in western Mexico says it recovered at least 1,600 baby teeth from a suspected clandestine burial site, but Mexican authorities say they have no official record of such a discovery. The competing claims have fueled demands for an independent forensic investigation, according to a New York Post report.
Buscando Cuerpos en Todo México, a group formed by former Michoacán lawmaker Margarita López, says it found the teeth during searches at a site in Zacapu. The group has spent two weeks protesting outside Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office in Mexico City, seeking DNA analysis and formal identification of the recovered material.
López told Milenio that the group located the site in 2021 after spotting smoke from a hill during a search accompanied by a federal investigator. The searchers followed the smoke to property they believed belonged to a Sinaloa drug trafficker and encountered what they thought were human remains.
López said an official identified as Braulio cleaned one tooth and concluded that it belonged to a child. Her collective continued searching the location in later years and says it recovered additional bone fragments as well as the teeth.
The New York Post reported that López has alleged, without presenting forensic proof, that the teeth could have belonged to children between ages 1 and 12 who were exploited by trafficking networks. Authorities have not confirmed that the items are human teeth, identified any victims, or established a link to trafficking, sexual exploitation, or organ trafficking.
Michoacán’s attorney general rejected the group’s account in a Thursday statement.
“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 disputed that statement, arguing that law enforcement officials participated in the recovery operation.
“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.
She further alleged that federal prosecutors and forensic staff attended the recovery effort.
“(They handled) the chain of custody for the recovered remains – I am not lying,” she wrote.
López, whose daughter disappeared in 2011 and whose remains were located two years later, has asked the International Committee of the Red Cross to help investigate. She also criticized President Claudia Sheinbaum’s response.
“Ever since the story about the “1,600 little teeth” broke, they’ve either stayed silent or denied the discovery,” López said.
José Niño is the deputy editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/JoseAlNino
