How dead pigs are helping in the search for missing victims of Mexico’s drug wars

Forensic scientists bury pig carcasses in bin-liners and on blankets to simulate the different conditions in which a real body might have been interred. Photograph: Jalisco Search Commission

Six years ago, Guadalupe Ayala was left distraught after her 25-year-old son, Alfredo Ezequiel Campos, was taken from his home in Tlajomulco. It was another name added to the list of more than 15,000 people recorded as missing in the western Mexican state of Jalisco. In the state capital, Guadalajara, a major traffic junction plastered with posters of missing people has been renamed the “roundabout of the disappeared”.

There are more than 100,000 missing people in Mexico – one of the tragic consequences of the country’s deadly drug crisis, with most of the “disappeared” believed to be abducted by organised crime groups and drug cartels. The total is likely to be even higher as many people are not reported missing for fear of retribution.