Five young men who went missing in Mexico and later shown on camera being brutally murdered by a Mexican drug cartel were lured to meet the gang with a fake job offer.
The young men, all students and friends whose ages ranged between 19 and 22 were duct-taped, beaten, stabbed and beheaded in a horrifically graphic video.
The deceased young men who were seeking employment as private security, met a contact in town and were not seen again until the video surfaced.
According to El Universal journalist Carlos Arrieta, the men were deceived into a meeting with the Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG) cartel.
They hoped to recruit the victims into their ranks and killed them after they refused.
The men were later identified by their relatives as Roberto Olmeda, Diego Lara, Uriel Galvan, Jaime Martinez and Dante Cedillo, El Pais reported.
The “strongest hypothesis” pointed to the young men contacting a call center to gain employment.
According to the report, these call centers offer high-paying jobs with attractive job benefits that are actually a hoax to trick young people into the CJNG, which then forcefully recruits applicants.
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On Wednesday afternoon, Mexican authorities located the property where the photo and video were allegedly filmed and found four burned and decapitated bodies.
The bodies were badly burned and had not yet been identified, according to prosecutors in the western state of Jalisco.
However, the bodies were found inside a building near where the young men were kidnapped Friday and later photographed in captivity.
A fifth body was found by police inside a burned-out car in a nearby area.
Photos shared by Jalisco prosecutors show brick and concrete buildings on a ranch, isolated by an open field.
They also showed bloodstains on the floor, shoes scattered about and investigators examining the area.
The young men went missing Friday while on a trip to attend a festival in the city of Lagos de Moreno, an area known for cartel violence.
They were next seen in viral videos bound by tape, kneeling on the ground and surrounded by gang members, with one of them seen bludgeoning and apparently decapitating his friend.