Witnesses report plane flying low and person thrown out over Eldorado in Sinaloa, a region home to drug traffickers

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

The body of a man, who witnesses said was tossed from a plane, landed on a hospital roof in Mexico’s northern Sinaloa state on Wednesday, according to a public health service official in the region which is home to notorious drug traffickers.



The body landed on the roof of an IMSS hospital in the town of Eldorado, around 7:30am local time, said the official, who was not authorised to give his name.

Witnesses standing outside the health centre reported a plane flying low over the hospital and a person thrown out, the health official said.

Later on Wednesday, Sinaloa’s deputy attorney general, Jesus Martin Robles, said a body found on the hospital roof showed injuries that appeared to be related to a strong impact. He did not confirm that it had been thrown from a plane.

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The public health service official said two more bodies were reported to have been found in the town, about 60 kilometres (40 miles) south of Culiacán, the state capital. Local media reported that those two bodies were thrown from the same plane as the body that landed on the hospital.

The official did not know if the man was alive when he was thrown from the plane. Officials from the state prosecutor’s office were at the scene, he said.

“This is an agricultural area and planes are regularly used for fumigation,” the official said, adding that the IMSS hospital was operating normally.

Local media reported that suspected gang members had picked up the two other corpses.

Sinaloa is the home state of Joaquin “Chapo” Guzman, who ran the Sinaloa drug cartel until his arrest in 2016. He was extradited to the United States earlier this year.

Ever since Chapo’s arrest, security in the state has deteriorated as the Sinaloa cartel struggles to adapt to infighting and fresh threats from rival groups.