The relatives of Pablo Osorio Sánchez are urging Mexican federal authorities to connect the murder of the 26-year-old engineer with the ongoing investigation regarding the January abduction of ten workers from a Canadian mining company.
Osorio Sánchez was taken hostage in the same area and around the same period when armed individuals abducted employees and contractors of Vizsla Silver Corp. His remains were discovered in the same clandestine graves where federal authorities found nine of the ten kidnapped individuals.
The family suspects that the details surrounding the Vizsla Silver abductions may shed light on what happened to Osorio Sánchez.
“We are seeking answers; we need them to clarify who kidnapped him and why. Who were these individuals? We have countless questions and so few responses,” stated Jaime López, Osorio Sánchez’s uncle, during a phone interview with CBC News from Florida.
Between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m. on January 23, armed men, reportedly associated with a faction of the Sinaloa cartel, invaded a secured compound in Concordia, Sinaloa, known as La Clementina, where Vizsla Silver housed its staff and stored some of its vehicles.
At approximately 7:30 that same morning, Osorio Sánchez left his home in Concordia—a municipality situated about 50 kilometers east of the Pacific coastal city of Mazatlán—to wait at a bus stop. While waiting for his usual weekday transport to a highway tunnel worksite several kilometers away, he spoke with his girlfriend.
During their conversation, his partner suddenly heard male voices. One voice remarked, “We can fix this,” and then the call was abruptly disconnected. This marked the last communication she had with him, according to family accounts and documentation from the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
Inside the Clementina gated residential compound, where several vehicles bearing the Vizsla Silver Corp. logo are parked. This site, secured by Sinaloa’s state Attorney General’s Office, is believed to be where 10 Vizsla Silver workers were abducted on January 23, 2026. (Heriberto Luzanilla/CBC)
‘Indicio C’
Federal authorities discovered the body of Osorio Sánchez, originally from Taxiaco, Oaxaca, approximately two weeks later. He was interred at a depth of two meters alongside an unknown number of other corpses in one of at least two unmarked, clandestine graves located in an open field in El Verde, a village around 19 km northwest of Concordia.
Investigative records obtained by CBC News indicate that authorities labeled the location where Osorio Sánchez was found as “fosa 2,” or Grave 2. They wrapped his remains in a blue surgical sheet and tagged his body bag with the label “Indicio C” for identification among the other bodies discovered in the same area on February 6.
Autopsy results revealed that he died from a gunshot wound to the upper right side of his head and that his body exhibited severe blunt-force trauma prior to his death. A suspected bullet wound was also identified on his right jaw without any exit point.
“We are shattered, mentally, because this is a tremendous loss for us,” expressed López.
Osorio Sánchez was the eldest of three siblings.
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The El Verde burial sites also contained the remains of nine of the ten men who were kidnapped from the Vizsla Silver compound. Some of the other bodies exhibited similar signs of blunt-force trauma and gunshot wounds to the head, according to information acquired by CBC News.
The status of the tenth kidnapped Vizsla Silver worker, Francisco Antonio Esparza Yáñez, who was in charge of community relations, is still unknown.
Maurillo Santiago, a leading attorney with the Center for Human Rights and Legal Counsel for Indigenous Peoples in Oaxaca, noted that different divisions of the federal Attorney General’s Office are managing the cases of Osorio Sánchez and the Vizsla Silver workers.
Santiago, who represents the family, mentioned that the forced disappearances unit is overseeing Osorio Sánchez’s case, while the organized crime division is handling the Vizsla Silver investigation.
The Attorney General’s Office has yet to respond to a CBC News inquiry for comment.
‘A gap that we can’t cross’
Yetzy Santiago Lorenzo, an attorney with the same human rights organization involved in the case, indicated there remain unanswered questions regarding how the clandestine graves were discovered, who discovered them, and who was buried alongside Osorio Sánchez.
She expressed uncertainty about whether the federal and state authorities or civilian collectives searching for the disappeared found the graves in El Verde.
“There is a strange level of secrecy surrounding this because as soon as the graves were discovered, federal authorities and the Attorney General’s office took control and secured the area,” stated Santiago Lorenzo.
“Why does the Attorney General’s Office treat Pablo’s investigation separately from the group? There is a space, a gap that we can’t bridge yet.”
Heavily armed Mexican soldiers patrol an area where authorities report bodies and human remains were uncovered near El Verde, Sinaloa, on February 8, 2026. (Heriberto Luzanilla/CBC)
Osorio Sánchez and the Vizsla Silver employees were abducted and murdered amidst an ongoing civil war within the Sinaloa cartel, pitting La Chapiza, loyal to the sons of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera, against La Mayiza, which follows the son of Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, who co-led the Sinaloa cartel with El Chapo.
This civil war, which has resulted in thousands of deaths and disappearances across the state, escalated after one of El Chapo’s sons lured El Mayo to a meeting in July 2024 on the outskirts of Culiacán to have him captured and handed over to U.S. authorities.
Mexican federal officials have stated that a faction linked to La Chapiza was responsible for the kidnapping and murders of the Vizsla Silver workers.
In June, a local boss aligned with La Chapiza, Gabriel Nicolás “El Gabito, El 80” Martínez Larios, was apprehended in connection with the Vizsla Silver abduction. More recently, federal authorities announced the arrests of Angel Gabriel, known as “El Tronco,” and Milton Yair, along with 11 others, including two minors, associated with the La Chapiza faction involved in the case.
Gabriel and Yair were reportedly part of a La Chapiza commando unit referred to as Los Menores.
In the middle of conflict territory
A July report from the International Crisis Group on the civil war indicated that hundreds of families fled the Concordia area in September 2024 as violence surged and La Mayiza gunmen “displaced the local strongman” linked to La Chapiza.
Vizsla Silver’s exploration activities take place in the midst of this conflict zone. The Canadian mining firm is conducting exploration across 35,000 hectares in a remote and mountainous region as part of its flagship Panuco Project, approximately 25 km east of Concordia’s urban center.
“Dozens of families have returned since then… However, many services are now under the control of [La Mayiza], including public transportation,” the report noted.
Vizsla Silver’s Panuco mining project headquarters in Sinaloa, Mexico. (Vizsla Silver)
The deaths, violence, and turmoil stemming from the conflict in Sinaloa likely influence the federal authorities’ decision to handle Osorio Sánchez’s case differently from that of the Vizsla Silver workers, which garnered significant media attention, commented Mexico City attorney Cesar Gutiérrez Priego, who specializes in national security and military issues.
“This has created immense legal uncertainty and challenges. Regardless of how much the federal government attempts to demonstrate progress, the reality is that Pablo’s case, for instance, is just another among many that continue to accumulate,” he stated.
“It is not a priority for the media or the authorities. They simply have not devoted the necessary attention to conducting the investigation as it deserves to be conducted.”
Gutiérrez Priego suggested that the family’s legal representatives should request a federal judge to combine the cases.
Santiago Lorenzo mentioned that they are currently focused on persuading the Attorney General’s Office to incorporate Osorio Sánchez’s case with that of the Vizsla Silver workers before considering any court applications.
The wait for answers is a heavy burden for Osorio Sánchez’s family.
“I urge the Mexican authorities not to let this situation become normalized,” said López.
“There are many young people, students, who aspire to be engineers as well, and it would be tragic if their careers ended in a similar manner.”