A volunteer search group says it has recovered at least 1,600 baby teeth from a mass-grave site in western Mexico, raising fears that the remains may be linked to children who were trafficked.
The parents’ group, founded by former Michoacán lawmaker Margarita López, spent the past two weeks protesting outside Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office in Mexico City. They are demanding DNA testing and formal identification of the teeth, but say their requests have not yet produced results.
López told Mexican outlet Milenio that members of Buscando Cuerpos en Todo México were joined by an investigator from the Attorney General’s Office during a 2021 search in Zacapu, Michoacán. The team reportedly noticed smoke rising from a nearby hillside.
The group followed the smoke to a property allegedly controlled by a Sinaloa drug trafficker, where they said they found what appeared to be human remains.
According to López, an official identified only as “Braulio” cleaned one of the teeth and concluded that it had belonged to a child.
López’s own daughter disappeared in 2011, and her remains were found two years later elsewhere in Mexico. She said she continued searching the property for missing people and uncovered human bone fragments there over the following years.
On Wednesday, the volunteers said they discovered what appeared to be multiple sets of baby teeth.
Without presenting evidence, López speculated that the teeth could belong to children between the ages of 1 and 12 who may have been exploited in organ trafficking or sexual abuse.
The discovery has not been independently verified through forensic analysis. Neither federal nor state authorities have connected the teeth to any named victims.
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Michoacán’s Attorney General’s Office rejected the allegations in a statement issued Thursday.
“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. It added that Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office had likewise received no reports concerning the alleged findings.
López condemned the response, pointing to Mexico’s more than 130,000 missing people, including 18,104 children.
“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 also claimed that a federal prosecutor and forensic specialists were present when the teeth were recovered.
“(They handled) the chain of custody for the recovered remains – I am not lying,” López wrote.
López has asked the International Committee of the Red Cross to intervene and assist with the investigation.
She also criticized Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum for not publicly addressing the reported discovery.
“Ever since the story about the ‘1,600 little teeth’ broke, they’ve either stayed silent or denied the discovery,” López said.
The Post contacted Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office and Michoacán’s State Attorney General’s Office for comment. López did not respond to multiple requests for additional comment.
