ENSENADA: Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence.

Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific, journalists observed.

“We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California said without providing the identities of the victims.

Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter have not been seen since April 27. They were on vacation near the coastal city of Ensenada in the northwestern state of Baja California. But the brothers’ mother, Debra Robinson, said in a Facebook post that they never arrived at their planned accommodation.

Santo Tomas, where the FBI reported the discovery of the three bodies, is about 30 miles (45 kilometres) southeast of Ensenada.

More than a dozen responders, including federal agents, state police, forensic experts and military personnel, were at work on the difficult-to-access cliff area.

Navy personnel and officials from the state prosecutor’s office searched a cliff area in Ensenada earlier on Friday, according to city hall. Baja California state authorities said that three Mexican nationals were being questioned in connection with the disappearances. “A white pickup vehicle was located, as well as other evidence,” the state prosecutor’s office said in a statement.

Published in Dawn, May 5th, 2024