Human remains discovered dumped in a Mexican ravine have tested positive for being those of call center employees, according to the results of the tests.
In the days before the grisly discovery last week, eight young employees were reported missing.
Investigators believe the call center served as a front for an illegal estate agency that preyed on US tourists and extorted money from them.
They speculate that the notorious Jalisco New Generation cartel (CJNG) was in charge.
It is currently unknown whether the eight employees may have run afoul of the CJNG or if they were specifically targeted by members of a rival cartel.
In Zapopan, in the western state of Jalisco, dozens of black bags containing the dismembered remains were discovered on May 31.
On Tuesday, the state government declared that "the remains [were] those of the young people who had been reported missing.".
From May 20 to May 31, six men and two women from the area vanished. .
They all worked at the same call center, which is currently under investigation for allegedly defrauding foreign buyers of timeshares in Mexican vacation resorts.
Officials from the state of Jalisco did not give many specifics about the deceased, but local media reported that their ages ranged from 23 to 37.
Carlos Garca was the first to go missing. The 31-year-old disappeared on May 20. His case was initially not connected to the call center because his family had only disclosed that he worked for a "small business.".
But starting on May 23, when the parents of Itzel Abigail, 27, and Carlos Valladolid, 23, reported their children missing, there was a rapid increase in reports of missing call center workers.
On May 22, everyone had last spoken to their loved ones—all but Carlos Garcia's relatives.
The Valladolid siblings' relatives claimed they had last spoken to the pair while they were in their car that afternoon.
Arturo Robles, 30, called his mother on the morning of May 22 from the call center, she claimed, saying, "I've arrived at work, I'm going to have breakfast, and then I'll start working.". After that, his family lost contact with him.
Jess Salazar, 37, left a final message for his partner that same afternoon as he arrived at the call center, according to the woman.
On that particular day, Juan Antonio Estrada, 34, Mayra Velázquez, 29, Jorge Moreno, 28, and others all disappeared.
The eight victims' deaths have not yet been explained by the state of Jalisco, but the prosecutor's office said it was looking at CCTV footage after witnesses reported seeing armed men kidnapping several call center workers.
Police discovered marijuana, blood-stained rags, and whiteboards with foreign names written on them inside the call center, according to local media.
Police are looking for the property's landlord. .
The call center is located in Zapopan, where the mayor claimed it operated without a license and in an illegal manner.
"It's a house that operated without any sort of permit, and when we checked it, we discovered it was not really a proper call center at all; it was totally illicit," the mayor said.
The Milenio newspaper claimed that the center was used to defraud Americans and Canadians by marketing them timeshares that didn't exist. The Jalisco New Generation cartel's (CJNG) members are said to have received salaries from the profits.
