Mexico Detains 30 Marines Over Disappearances in Tamaulipas
Marines march during the Independence Day military parade at Zocalo Square on September 16, 2020 in Various Cities, Mexico. This year El Zocalo remains closed for general public due to coronavirus restrictions. Every September 16 Mexico celebrates the beginning of the revolution uprising of 1810. Hector Vivas/Getty Images

Mexico has arrested and detained 30 Marines in relation to the disappearances of several people in Tamaulipas back in 2014, according to the Navy.

"Thirty naval service members were made available to the Attorney General's Office on April 9 in compliance with arrest warrants... for the alleged crime of forced disappearance of persons," the Navy Secretariat said in a statement on Monday.

Al Jazeera reported that the statement did not specify the number of missing people and the exact date of the disappearances. But it said this was connected to the probe on people's disappearances in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, near the U.S. border, in 2014.

The Navy said it surrendered the 30 Marines to Mexico's prosecutors so that prosecutors could carry out the "pertinent investigations."

According to an AFP News report, the apprehension of 30 Marines marks the largest apprehension of military personnel concerning enforced disappearances in Mexico.

Meanwhile, Mexico's government stated that arrest warrants were being prepared against the military for the disappearance of 43 students from the Ayotzinapa school in Guerrero back in September 2014. However, it was not clear whether those warrants have already been served.

Tamaulipas has been an area of violence linked to drug trafficking. It has one of the highest missing person rates in Mexico, particularly on the roads that lead to the U.S. border.

Disappearances in Mexico

Last July, more than 73,200 people were reported to be missing, according to an NBC News report. The number of missing persons equates to the entire population of American cities, such as Deerfield Beach, Florida, or Kalamazoo, Michigan.

"It is not just about having a registry, we not only want to know who we are looking for, but have all the possible information to carry out searches," Karla Quintana, head of the National Search Commission, said in the report.

Alejandro Encinas, the undersecretary of Human Rights, noted that in the last months of the pandemic, the number of missing persons has decreased compared to last year's rates.

A fifth of those registered as missing are minors, with ages of 10 and 19 years old. Other crimes such as homicides continued to spike despite the restrictions brought by the pandemic.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has highlighted the search for missing persons since taking office in December 2018, Washington Post reported.

Jose Miguel Vivanco, head of the Americas division of Human Rights Watch, said that it was important to note that the Lopez Obrador administration vows to establish an open and transparent database of these disappearances.

However, Vivanco noted that he wished the administration would show the same commitment in identifying those responsible for the said crimes and bringing them to justice.

The disappearance of 43 students from Ayotzinapa after being detained by police is the most notorious case in Mexico that the country is still trying to solve.

The Mexican government has reopened its investigation, and authorities had already announced the identification of the second set of remains of the missing students.

In a 2020 report, the figure includes 324 U.S. citizens who disappeared in Mexico and were not found.

WATCH: Experts Investigate Disappearance of 43 students - From AP Archive