Mexican authorities announced on Friday that federal forces had discovered what seemed to be the body of one of the ten workers from a Canadian mining company who were abducted three weeks ago in the state of Sinaloa. The attorney general’s office released a statement on Friday evening revealing that “bodies and human remains” were located during the ongoing search for the kidnapped employees of Vizsla Silver Corp. The statement mentioned that one of the bodies displayed similarities to a missing individual, and efforts were being made to verify the identity. It did not specify the number of other bodies found.
To date, four individuals have been apprehended in connection with the kidnapping. The ten employees of the Vancouver-based company were taken on January 23 from Concordia, located approximately 50 kilometers east of the city of Mazatlán. Vizsla Silver stated in an email to CBC News that it was cooperating with Mexican authorities leading the investigation and supporting the affected families. The company refrained from providing further comments.
Vizsla Silver previously encountered security issues with its mining project named Panuco in Sinaloa, leading to the suspension of field operations on April 4, 2025, due to security concerns in the area. The United Nations Committee on Forced Disappearances is monitoring the situation in Sinaloa following the examination of a case involving a 26-year-old engineer abducted on the same day and in the same city as the Vizsla employees.
The UN committee forwarded a petition to Mexican government representatives in Geneva on February 2, urging “urgent action” in the case of Pablo Osorio Sanchez from Oaxaca. The petition highlighted the disappearances of the Vizsla employees, emphasizing the interconnectedness of both cases. Allegations of collusion between state agents and criminal elements were noted in relation to the disappearances.
Concordia currently has 79 registered missing persons, with 30 reports since January 1, 2025. In Sinaloa, approximately 6,835 individuals are missing, with 1,557 disappearances recorded between January 1, 2025, and February 2, 2026, attributed to the violent conflict within the Sinaloa cartel. The internal strife within the cartel, sparked in September 2024, involves factions loyal to El Chapo’s sons (Los Chapitos) and El Mayo’s son (La Mayiza), resulting in widespread violence in the state.
Federal Security and Citizen Protection Secretary Omar Harfuch suggested that the kidnapping of Vizsla’s employees might be linked to a group associated with Los Chapitos.
