MEXICO CITY, April 29 (Reuters) - Mexico's attorney

general, Alejandro Gertz, said on Tuesday that the ranch in

Teuchtitlan, Mexico's Jalisco state, where human remains, piles

of clothes and weapons were found last month was a longstanding

operation and training site for organized crime.

The so-called "ranch of horror" was discovered in March

littered with bone fragments, ashes and alleged makeshift

crematoriums along with hundreds of shoes and backpacks, as

bloody cartel violence continues to hit Mexico.

A large number of warheads, casings, operation targets,

weapons and equipment used to train people were also found at

the site, Gertz added during a press conference.

"It was a longstanding operation site, where people were

recruited, trained and from where they went out to operate,"

Gertz answered when questioned about the links between organized

crime and the ranch.

The attorney general also reiterated that the activities

at the ranch and the people who controlled it were linked to the

powerful Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), which authorities

have accused of forcibly recruiting young people.

Jalisco is one of the states with the highest number of

reported missing persons in Mexico, according to official data,

and it is the home base of the CJNG.