Father of Mexican cartel victim says remains not of students

The father of one of the five young men shown in a video being murdered by a Mexican drug cartel claims the remains found at the scene of the crime do not belong to the victims.

Juan Martinez, the father of Jaime Adolfo Martinez Miranda, 21, told Mexican newspaper El Occidental this week that the charred remains found in Jalisco state in central Mexico do not belong to the five school friends who went missing after they were lured to what they thought was a job recruitment site.

“They [the authorities] showed us photographs of four burned out bodies, but none of them are our sons,” Martinez told the newspaper, adding the families were shown photos of dentures and one body that featured a metal rod to help heal a broken bone. “They all practiced sports and hadn’t broken any bones. They are not our children.”

The cartel demanded the the victims join their ranks as hitmen, authorities said.

The young men, all students and friends who ranged in age from 19 to 22 were duct-taped, beaten, stabbed and beheaded in a graphic online video.

They were looking for employment in the town of Lagos de Moreno as private security guards and were not seen again until the grisly video surfaced Tuesday, according to reports.

Authorities, who found the site where they believe the killing took place, did not say which criminal enterprise was behind the kidnapping and murder of the students.

Two major cartels — the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco Nueva Generacion Cartel — are currently locked in battle for control of the region.

El Pais reported that the mark “Pure MZ” found on the video stands for Mayo Zambada, the leader of the Sinaloa cartel.