Mexico arrests cartel members linked to murders of 10 workers from Canadian mining company

Mexican authorities said on Sunday that they had arrested five men linked to the kidnapping and murder of 10 workers from a Canadian mining company in the country’s northwest.

The workers, all Mexicans, were kidnapped at gunpoint on January 23 from a silver mining project belonging to Vancouver-based Vizsla Silver in the violence-plagued state of Sinaloa.

The bodies of the 10 men, two of whom were engineers and one a geologist, were later found buried in clandestine graves.

Mexico’s defense ministry said the suspects belonged to a faction of the fearsome Sinaloa cartel. It identified one suspect as Jesus Abraham, alias Taliban.

In June, Mexico announced the arrest of another suspect, identified as Gabriel N., alias Gabito, a hitman for the same faction.

Mines have been the target of organized crime on other occasions in Mexico, as cartels see opportunities to extort or even sell valuable ore themselves.

Abductions by armed groups are common in Mexico, where more than 120,000 people have vanished since the 1950s, many of them abducted and killed by drug cartels.

It is rare, however, for international companies to be targeted.

“We are devastated by this outcome and the tragic loss of life,” Vizsla President and CEO Michael Konnert said in a statement after five of the workers’ bodies were found. “Our deepest condolences are with our colleagues’ families, friends and co-workers, and the entire community of Concordia.”

Jaime Castañeda said he identified the body of his brother, José Manuel Castañeda Hernández, on Sunday by viewing photos shown to him by local officials in Mazatlán, CBC News reported.

“In truth, this has been very painful to be here, in a place where we don’t want to be,” Jaime Castañeda told CBC News in a phone interview.

José Manuel Castañeda Hernández, 43, was a husband and a father to two children, his brother told CBC News.

“It’s so hard to see … how they suffer,” Jaime Castañeda aid. “There’s no justice with what’s happening.”

The government said the workers were mistaken for members of a rival faction of the Sinaloa cartel, which has been ripped apart by internecine fighting since September 2024.

According to the government, the suspects worked for a faction controlled by the sons of jailed druglord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, who is serving a life sentence in a Supermax prison in Florence, Colorado, which houses numerous high-profile inmates

The Sinaloa cartel has been designated a terrorist organization by Washington.

In July, former Sinaloa cartel co-founder Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada was sentenced in a U.S. court to life in prison, seven years after “El Chapo” was handed the same sentence.