ENSENADA, Mexico – Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said on May 3, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence.

The 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.

“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 north-western state of Baja California, but the brothers’ mother, Ms Debra Robinson, said they never arrived at their planned accommodation.

“Reaching out to anyone who has seen my two sons. They have not contacted us,” she wrote on a Facebook page for Baja California tourists before May 3’s discovery.

Santo Tomas, where the FBI reported the discovery of the three bodies, is about 45km south-east of Ensenada.

More than a dozen responders, including federal agents, the state police, forensic experts and military personnel, were at work on May 3 on the difficult-to-access cliff area.

Spiral of violence

Navy personnel and officials from the state prosecutor’s office searched a cliff area in Ensenada earlier on May 3, according to city hall.

The Baja California state authorities said on May 2 that three Mexicans were being questioned in connection with the disappearances.

“A white pick-up vehicle was located, as well as other evidence,” the state prosecutor’s office said in a statement.

The investigation was being coordinated with the FBI and the Australian and US consulates, it added.

A spokesman said Australia’s Foreign Ministry was in regular contact with the family of the missing Australians, and that it “recognises this is a very distressing time”.

“The Australian Embassy in Mexico City is working closely with the Australian Federal Police and local authorities regarding the two Australians reported missing in Mexico,” the spokesman added.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said “there is real concern about the fact that they’ve gone missing”.

Baja California is known for its inviting beaches but is also one of Mexico’s most violent states because of organised crime groups.

Two other Australian surfers, Mr Dean Lucas and Mr Adam Coleman, were murdered and their bodies burned while travelling in the north-western Mexican state of Sinaloa in November 2015.

In March 2023, alleged members of the Gulf Cartel kidnapped four Americans in the north-eastern city of Matamoros, across the border from Brownsville, Texas. Two of them were killed.

The spiral of criminal violence engulfing Mexico has killed more than 450,000 and left more than 100,000 missing since the federal government launched a controversial anti-drug operation in 2006. AFP