Fifteen miles south of the World Cup’s opening night party, the parents of Mexico’s missing dig through the dirt for their loved ones.
Two shallow graves were found last week on rubbish-strewn farmland near the modern stadium where Son Heung-min’s South Korea face Czech Republic on Thursday.
As The Telegraph joins families for a fresh search, a third suspected area for remains is found 10 metres away.
“We learn to distinguish the smell of animal to that of a human body,” says Héctor Flores as he hacks away at the ground. “If you smell a dead body, you will keep smelling the dead body all the week.
It’s very deep.”
We are in a cartel stronghold in Guadalajara, where state officers wielding M16 rifles watch us and the searchers with minimal interest.
Officials are there just to monitor as the team of mothers and fathers thrust iron spikes into the ground and then smell the tips for signs of rotting flesh.
After two hours at the site, Flores is suddenly convinced we have found a new grave because he has discovered a pile of chalk, usually left by the cartel to soak up moisture and the rancid stench.
Read the full story here: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2026/06/09/world-cup-mexico-search-victims-cartels-disappeared/
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