Frontera NorteSur February 2000

The Location

The two-lane Casas Grandes Highway heading outside of Cd. Juárez begins near the airport, heading west past Pemex gasoline storage tanks, truck stops, junk yards, tiny mom-and-pop homemade grocery stores, bars with tiny neon beer signs in the windows, a shooting range, and self-built houses made of forklift pallets, second-hand bricks and cinder block. For a few kilometers the road bustles with traffic, mostly trucks and pickups. Vendors at the railroad tracks sit on folding chairs or stand under rickety canvas awnings selling bananas, oranges, soft drinks, candy, and green and yellow plastic bottles of engine oil. Gradually the traffic and buildings thin out, the electricity poles disappear, and the road is edged only by brown earth and desert vegetation.

A couple of years ago the dead bodies of a young couple were found stuffed into an oil drum at the turnoff from this highway to Santa Teresa. Reports suggested the man was a member of the El Paso Bimbo gang and had lost a load of drugs. His death was viewed as a settling of accounts or "ajuste de cuentas."

Dominating the security news at the end of 1999 was the story of more than 60 FBI agents entering Cd. Juárez in late November to assist Mexican federal authorities in the exhumation and identification of bodies allegedly buried in newly-discovered, unmarked graves. The graves were on property near or on Tesoro Escondido, a former shooting range on the Casas Grandes Highway about 5 kms. west of the Glorieta at km. 20 of the Pan American Highway, and at Rancho Santa Elena, across the highway. Another location on the Pan American highway, known as Rancho Santa Rosalia, near Ascencion, Chihuahua, was also excavated.

The Key Players

On Monday morning, November 29, more than 60 FBI agents entered into México through the Santa Teresa crossing, joining dozens of army troops and agents of the Mexican Attorney General's office (PGR) at a former shooting range on the Casas Grande Highway near the airport. The PGR agents and perhaps other police forces had arrived earlier in the morning at the Cd. Juárez airport in two C-130s and four helicopters, according to one Norte report. Mexican military troops, many wearing face masks, had surrounded the area the night before, according to another report. Initial reports to the news media indicated the operation was designed to exhume and identify the bodies of up to 100 persons secretly buried there, presumably the victims of drug-related murders.

FBI spokesperson Alvaro Cruz in El Paso said the participation of the FBI had been requested by Mexican authorities. The Attorney General's office announced it had set up a toll- free telephone hot line, usable in both the U.S. and México, so that families of the victims might get in touch with authorities hoping to identify the bodies. Two men, apparently acting as watchmen, for the property while working at nearby maquila plants were arrested, along with a woman with a six-month old baby. They had apparently lived on the property for about a year. The property itself is owned by Jorge Ortiz, who lives in El Paso and reportedly is in the business of fixing roofs.

Local police authorities were not notified in advance about the operation, but Chihuahua state attorney general Arturo González Rascón told reporters he supported the effort as a means of clarifying disappearances and assassinations associated with narco-trafficking. He was quoted in Norte as saying the operation was "headquartered in El Paso," and that it was believed U.S. citizens were among those buried in the graves. Chihuahua Senator Arturo Molina Ruiz also expressed tentative support for the operation, but added he hoped it had taken place "within the rules of bilateral cooperation." Mayor Gustavo Elizondo, PAN, on the other hand, complained about the lack of advance warning from México City and even suggested the dead bodies might have been "planted" at the shooting range.

More than 600 agents in all participated in the excavations and related investigations, on the Mexican side alone. Among these are agents of the Special Unit Against Organized Crime (UEDO), the Special Prosecutor for Crimes against Health (FEADS), and the Directorate of Air Services (DSA) of the PGR, and military personnel. In charge of the entire investigation is José Trinidad Larrieta, head of the Special Unit Against Organized Crime.

Who's Watching

The action was unprecedented in many ways, receiving worldwide media attention, almost certainly one of the goals of the operation. Authorities explained that they expected to find as many as one hundred or more dead bodies in several locations, relying on at least one informant who divulged the locations to the FBI. Hundreds of reporters from around the world scoured the city for several days looking for stories, usually having a negative impact on the image of Cd. Juárez, that could provide context about what inevitably were referred to as the "narco-graves." Concerned about the impact of bad publicity, Mayor Gustavo Elizondo announced the city had purchased a $30,000 ad in the Washington Post as an "initial step" in an international campaign to counter the "false, distorted, and unjust image" of Juárez.

By December 8, Mexican Attorney General Madrazo lowered expectations, suggesting it would be a mistake to believe that as many as half of the 196 persons who have disappeared in the past seven years in the Cd. Juárez region would be located in these excavations.

As if in symmetrical imitation, but receiving far less attention, the U.S. Border Patrol, the Texas Department of Public Security, and the Special Prosecutor for the Investigation of Homicides Against Women in Cd. Juárez, announced on December 7 they would cooperate in trying to identify 96 bodies found in Texas over the past ten years. Before these operations, Chihuahua state police identified 8 of the most violent street gangs in Juárez and revealed that of the 34 most troubled gangs in the city, fully half were attributed with at least one homicide in 1999. In late November Norte published an investigative report suggesting a new organization, functioning in part through bribery of officials, was involved in transporting persons, drugs, firearms, and laundered funds by bus between Veracruz and Cd. Juárez.

On December 16, the last of nine bodies found had been exhumed from the "narco-graves," far short of expectations, and most FBI agents had returned to their homes. In late January, Mexican authorities declared the operation over. Several of the bodies had been identified. Many observers felt the joint exercise had been a public relations failure for the law enforcement agencies involved. Drug-related violence in Juárez was sensationalized with no positive return in an exercise which simply underscored the lack of progress in the war on drugs and highlighted the primitive state of cooperation between law enforcement agencies on both sides of the border.

RELATED NEWS
Security Roundup November 1999 - January 2000

November 25, Diario: Rene Ibarra Solis was gunned down as he left the bar Canana. On January 10 Diario reported he had been jailed in Cereso under a different name, Jose Miguel Melero Casas, in September, for "deprivation of liberty" of a woman, in response to a complaint by a woman who identified herself as his girlfriend. Ibarra had also been arrested by agents in Grupo Orion on charges of possession of marijuana on November 4. A man by the same name, Jose Miguel Melero, is in jail on drug charges.

December 7, Diario: A man was executed on December 6 by gunfire in the middle of Ascension, Chihuahua, in an apparent "adjustment in accounts" among narco traffickers. Erick Tafoya Chavez, 26, was hit by at least 8 of 15 bullets fired at him from a Dodge Ram pickup while he was driving his Jeep Cherokee. He had been interrogated by state police a few days earlier in connection with the "narco-grave site" uncovered in early December at Santa Rosalia, near Ascension, but state police stated they did not believe his death was connected. Armando Lorenzo Sanchez, commander of the state police in Ascencion, stated that he had arrested two persons believed to be connected to the murder.

December 8, Diario: Grupo Orion officers arrested a 19-year old man with enough cocaine to provide an estimated 810 doses in his possession. The man, Luis Carlos Terrazas Artalejo, 35, told police the cocaine had been purchased for his own personal use from someone nicknamed "El Diablo." In unrelated cases Grupo Orion officers also arrested two other men for possession of drugs.

December 9, Diario: Attorney General Jorge Madrazo suggested there might not be 100 or more dead bodies in the "narco-graves" after all. He said the mistakenly high numbers of presumed bodies referred to in news stories is related to the number, 196, of persons who have disappeared in the Juárez-El Paso region in the past seven years

Citing similarities in the cases on both sides of the border, Special Prosecutor Suly Ponce announced she would cooperate with Texas authorities in identifying 12 female bodies found in Texas. Hotline numbers (1-800-3463-243 and 1-800-2525-402) were published.

December 10, Diario: PGR agents in Cd. Juárez arrested five persons and confiscated 66 kilos of cocaine in a routine inspection at the Precos on the Pan American highway. Agents found 33 packets of cocaine with 20 kilos of cocaine in one vehicle, 52 packets in the gasoline tank of another vehicle, and 48 packets of cocaine in the engine and undersides of a third vehicle.

December 11, Diario: PGR spokesperson Igor Herrera announced six former commanders of the Federal Judicial Police and four former members of the Chihuahua state Police were under investigation on suspicion of ties to the execution of persons disappeared in Cd. Juárez in recent years. One of the former state police officers under investigation is the current director of the Aldama municipal police station, Antonio Navarrete, who worked for the state police from 1986-1998.

December 13, Diario: Two persons were wounded by gunfire in different parts of Juárez. Juan Carlos Martinez, 25, was shot as he was leaving the Café Ole in the Pueblito Mexicano shopping center, by a man he didn't recognize. A 15-year old youth was also shot on Gilberto Limon street in colonia Revolucion Mexicana, apparently the victim of a drive-by shooting.

Complaints were issued by a woman on a northbound bus, after a routine stop at the Precos checkpoint at Km. 44. Ivette complained that she and another woman were forced to get out of the bus and open their suitcases in the cold by an abusive PGR agent. A female agent conducted body searches before letting them leave. She noted that there was an unusually large number of female agents there, from which she deduced they were waiting for someone and it was her bad luck to have been at the wrong place at the wrong time. "Who are they to decide who is an alleged criminal and who is a simple citizen...?" she asked.

December 14, Diario: Soraya Garcia, a resident of Juárez, complained that a Mexican Army unit had set up a checkpoint between the Precos checkpoint at Km. 44 and the Customs checkpoint at Km. 30. "What sense does it make to go through another checkpoint? I think they are abusing our rights," she said.

PGR agents revealed they had confiscated a half-kilo of heroin on a routine check of a bus at the Precos at Km. 44 of the Pan American highway. Two persons, a man and his wife, were arrested. PGR agents said it was the second such confiscation of heroin in less than a week.

Norte: Abraham Perez Castanon, 49, a cattleman, farmer, and money-exchange operator, was murdered in his new 1999 Ford Lobo pickup in Saucillo by men driving a stolen Datsun. He died from two gunshot wounds to the head. Valentin Lechuga, 23, was with Perez at the time of his death. The Datsun was later found abandoned a few kilometers away.

December 15, Diario: a 54-year old cattleman, Victor Ortiz Ramirez, of the Ejido Alamos de Pena, was executed on the Pan American highway on the outskirts of Villa Ahumada. His 16-year old son was gravely wounded in the attack. The men were driving a 1998 Chevrolet pickup, loaded with pigs, to Juárez when they were attacked at about 3:15 p.m. by unknown assailants. Diario reported on December 16 that the son had indicated the assassins were dressed as agents of the Federal Judicial Police.

PGR agents at the Precos checkpoint at Km. 44 confiscated one kilo of methamphetamines from the knapsack of a man riding a bus during a routine check. Marcelino Moreno Salcedo, 23, was arrested by federal agents.

December 17, Diario: FBI agents have apparently left the excavation sites near Juárez.

PGR agents reported that on November 30 a priest, Francisco Santa Cruz, pastor of the church of Carichi, reported his automobile had been sprayed by bullets from an AK-47 assault rifle and other weapons just after he stopped his automobile on a curve to remove some stones blocking the highway. He saw two men approaching the automobile with weapons and he was able to gun his car fast enough to get away. The priest was accompanied by a catechist.

A man was jailed when he tried to illegally import $156,000 into Juárez from El Paso. Simon Arrazola Anaya was arrested at the Cordova Bridge while travelling with his wife, two children, and a nephew, in a 2000 GMC pickup with Michigan plates. Foreigners bringing more than $20,000 must declare the amount when entering.

PGR agents at the Precos checkpoint at Km. 44 found nearly one-half kilo of cocaine and arrested a man, Verduzco Vega, travelling on a bus to Juárez. The same day, agents for the Federal Fiscal Police, (PFF), seized 28 ounces of cocaine and two bulletproof vests at the customs checkpoint at Km. 30 on the Pan American highway. Two men were arrested.

December 18, Diario: A heavily armed group of men in a Suburban tried to kill a man at the intersection of Calzada del Rio and Boulevard Cuatro Siglos. After firing at a pedestrian, and possibly wounding him, the men apparently captured him and drove off.

December 19, Diario: A man, Jose Angel Perez Rojas, was executed at at the intersection of Plomo and Escobar. He was apparently walking home when men in a van began firing at him.

Citizens' complaints against abusive behavior by federal agents at the Precos checkpoint at Km. 44 of the Pan American highway were registered in newspaper accounts. The bishop of Juárez, Renato Ascencio Leon, told Norte reporters on December 19 that he had been the victim of abusive behavior there until agents found out he was Bishop. Several state and national members of congress for PAN and PRI announced they would take specific accusations of abuse to Congress for investigation. Perhaps in response, federal agents began to issue routine reports of confiscations at federal checkpoints.

December 20, Diario: The mayor of Nuevo Casas Grandes, Alberto Renteria Wong, announced the beginning of an interagency police operation to secure the city during the Christmas holidays. Agents of the highway police (PFC), municipal police, state police, federal judicial police, the fire department, and the 35th infantry battalion, supported by the Red Cross, were participating in the joint operation.

December 21, Diario: Customs agents in El Paso seized 130,000 kilos of marijuana, 4,000 kilos of cocaine, and 20 kilos of heroin. In addition, Joint Task Force 6 and Customs officials built a helicopter pad at the Fabens international crossing to be used for emergency medical cases and anti-narcotics flights.

December 22, Diario: PGR agents seized about half a ton of marijuana from a house in the Fuentes del Valle section of Juárez. Five persons were arrested.

For the third time in less than six months a new commander of the Customs Police (PFF) has been named. Rodrigo Rios Ledezma was replaced on December 21 by Rodolfo Contreras Sanchez. On August 10, 1999, Rios Ledezma replaced Otoniel Herrera, who in turn had replaced Juan Antonio Herrera Cabello on July 17. After January 1, 2000 the Customs Police, which began operating in December 1991, will be known as the Support Unit for Customs Inspection. There are currently about 100 agents in the force.

December 29, Diario: The bodies of two men apparently strangled to death were found in different locations but with similar signs of torture. One man, about 46 years of age, was found with his feet tied and with what appeared to be handcuff marks on his wrists. The other man, apparently in his mid-twenties, was also believed to have been strangled. In other incidents, four persons were arrested in downtown Juárez, accused of selling drugs to Tarahumara children.

January 4, Diario: There were 169 homicides in Juárez in 1999, out of which 99 were killed by firearms, 15 were strangled, and 55 killed by other means. 237 persons died in automobile accidents.

January 9, Diario: The bodies of a man and a woman, shot by high-powered firearms, were found outside a house 3 km. north of Nuevo Casas Grandes. The assassins apparently fled by pickup, abandoned later on a dirt road. The man, Javier Sandoval Angulo, 40, was apparently from Sinaloa but had recently resided in Nuevo Casas Grandes. The woman was identified only as "Oyuki," about 22 years of age. She may have been run over by the vehicle of the assassins.

January 11, Diario: First organized crime assassination of the year: Oscar Ibarra Manriquez, 35, a used car salesman, was executed with 3 shots on January 11 outside his business, next to a nightclub (Amadeus) in front of Wal-Marts on Ejercito Nacional. Two men approached him and shot him at point blank. The assassins fled in one of the cars on the lot but abandoned it after travelling only 500 meters. The victim was carrying 100,000 pesos and numerous items of jewelry. Ibarra was removing polarized paper from one of his automobiles when he was shot by assassins. After abandoning the first automobile the killers apparently transferred into another car. Later reports in January indicated the victim was wanted by U.S. authorities for narco trafficking.

January 12, Diario: Ojinaga: Beginning in December of 1999 military troops, state police, federal police, municipal police and a fiscal agent have been patrolling Ojinaga on weekends in high-crime areas. Patrols will be random and on weekdays.

More than 4 tons of drugs were burned yesterday in the campo militar near the UACH zoological faculty in Cd. Chihuahua. No news media representatives were present.

Grupo Delta of the city police arrested two men with 40 packets of cocaine and heroin. They were arrested in during a normal patrol by a Delicia unit.

PAN municipal president Humberto Aguilar Armendariz in Cd. Juárez said narco traffickers are not helping to finance the party. "We are very careful," he said.

Humberto Capelleti Gonzalez, an agent of the PGR, was murdered, apparently the victim of a hired assassination. Capelleti was a key witness in the trial of General Jesus G. Rebollo, now in jail for 32 years for crimes against health. Capelleti and the general's driver, Juan Galvan Lara, were trusted hands of General Gutiérrez. They clarified the ties the general had with Amado Carrillo Fuentes; both became part of the witness protection plan of the PGR.

Norte: Federal agents for the Special Prosecutor for Crimes Against Health (FEADS) arrested a man with 9 kilos of drugs in his 1993 black Altima. José de Jesus Garibay Millan, 33, told authorities at the Fifth Judicial District that he was not the owner of the drugs. He was arrested as the result of an anonymous report to the FEADS. He was arrested inside his house on Alcazar 2217 in Misones del Sur. He said he was remodeling his house and was waiting for two persons from the Social Security agency to do some paperwork for him when he was arrested by police. Garibay is from Mexico City.

January 13, Diario: The National Attorney General's office, at the request of Mayor Gustavo Elizondo, ordered the Juárez Cartel to be referred to henceforth as the Amado Carrillo Cartel, as a means of improving the image of the city. The Tijuana cartel will be referred to as the Arellano Felix Cartel. The attorney general circulated a memorandum on January 3 asking all employees to avoid public use of the name of any place in the country to identify a criminal organization. An organization directed by Hector Palma and Joaquin Guzman was known as the Sinaloa Cartel; and an organization commanded by Rafael Caro Quintero and Ernesto Fonseca was referred to as the Guadalajara Cartel.

Confidential information from DEA and PGR sources reveals that three commanders of the PGR received bribes from the Juárez Cartel in exchange for information about the investigation and movement of personnel of the PGR and armed forces involved in anti-narcotics operations, and about confidential directives against the "cell of the southeast" headed by Alcides Ramon Magana, alias "el Metro."

Three months after the death of Amado Carrillo Fuentes, the DEA gave Samuel Gonzalez, then coordinator of the Special Unit for Organized Crime (UEDO), a list of names of agents of the PGR involved in narco-trafficking. Among these were Cuauhtemoc Herrera Suastegui, ex-technical coordinator of UEDO and right arm of Samuel Gonzalez, now with the Mexican Presidential staff; Pedro Armas del Pozo, an officer of the Federal Judicial Police (PJF) attached to an operational unit; and Mario Silva Calderon, a UEDO commander, alias "el coyote" and "el animal." Calderon was captured on November 29, 1999, by Federal Judicial Police, assisted by the army.

According to sources close to the investigation Cuauhtemoc Herrera had received portfolios from his subordinate, Mario Silva, containing fifty thousand dollars in each. These had come from Alcides Ramon Magana in return for information about UEDO and Army operations against narco traffickers operating in Cancun. Mario Silva was detained by the order of the judge of the ninth penal district for crimes against health and organized crime. The PGR accuses Silva of providing information to the Juárez Cartel. According to PGR investigations Mario Silva was contacted by Oscar Benjamin Davila, now in jail, to protect the Juárez Cartel's operations in Yucatan.

Crime in Juárez, Valle de Juárez, and Samalayuca: intentional homicides from 1992- 1999. Diario reported results from a study done by Enrique Silva Perez of intentional homicides in the northern tip of the State of Chihuahua. The top row designates intentional homicides, the bottom row designates non-homicide violent deaths by suicide, by accident, traffic accident, and intoxication:

1992:168	1993: 182	1994: 234	1995: 294	1996: 253	1997: 260	1998: 242	1999: 175
1992: 601	1993: 717	1994: 750	1995: 859	1996: 839	1997: 931	1998: 806	1999: 812

Auto theft down: El Paso had a decline of 22 percent in stolen cars in 1999; 46 percent were recovered in El Paso and 39 percent were recovered in Mexico; The total number of auto thefts was 1700, compared to 2183 in 1998.

Federal Fiscal Police (PFF) confiscated 148 kilos of marijuana from an abandoned vehicle two kms. from the international crossing at San Jeronimo. Five U.S. patrols cars were pursuing a pick up near Santa Teresa for a speeding violation. The pickup crossed to the Mexican side and the driver escaped. In another incident 20 kilos of drugs were seized at the Cordova Bridge after a driver abandoned a pickup. He, too, escaped.

January 14: A municipal police agent was detained by Federal Judicial Police while transporting 100 kilos of marijuana in a new vehicle. He was assigned to Babicora station and had served in the department for almost 9 years. Jose Luis Medrano Ramirez was on his day off, driving a 1998 Ford Explorer. Judicial Police found drugs wrapped in 13 packages. He was consigned to the 6th Juzgado and sent to Cereso.

Newly arrived PGR delegate Samuel Hernandez de Alba reported that the first drug incineration of the year had taken place at the 20th cav regiment. Hernandez indicated incinerations of drugs would be frequent and informal, in accordance with orders from national PGR headquarters. 698 kilos of marijuana; 1.5 kilos of heroin; a kilo of methamphetamines, and 19 plants of marijuana were burned.

January 15, Diario: PGR agents confiscated 30 kms of cocaine at the Precos checkpoint. They detained one person. The drugs were valued at 2.5 million pesos on the illegal market. The drugs were being transported in a refrigerated truck driven by Jose Florimon Aguilar, from Guadalajara. The drugs were hidden in a special compartment with 30 packages among other merchandise. In addition, José de Jesus Mauricio Garibay Millan, a student, was arrested for transporting 9 kilos of cocaine in a 993 Nissan Altima. Garibay was arrested at a routine checkpoint after the drugs were found in the trunk of the car.

State Judicial Police arrested 3 ex-PGR agents, accused of kidnapping a woman in May, 1998. Froylan Castillo Garcia, Ivan Banuelos Velasques, and Manuel Lara Garcia, were also charged with possession of drugs.

Video cameras were installed in the offices of the PGR for security purposes.

January 17, Diario: A man about 35 years jumped off the Santa Fe bridge, killing himself. A potential binational conflict over the national location of the body resulted in delays of official action. El Paso authorities apparently believed only the head of the body was on U.S. soil, and did not attend to it. Juárez authorities recovered the body. Before throwing himself off the bridge the man apparently told people that he "felt like a bird." He then dove headfirst a distance of 8 meters, landing on cement. An El Paso rescue ambulance arrived at the scene but left immediately. Five units of the El Paso police arrived as well, but only one officer, Sgt. Quintanilla, approached the body. Juárez municipal police, who gave first aid to the man who died shortly after his fall, initially believed the body was on the U.S. side. Mexican authorities indicated if an investigation determined the man had died in US territory the paperwork of the investigation would be sent to the U.S. consul.

One hundred kilograms of marijuana were confiscated in Ascencion. Three persons were detained. The men said they had been hired to transport the drugs to Ascension, and that they were not aware of the possibility of an inspection point on the highway.

A man and his helper were sentenced to 14 and 12 years of prison for selling heroin at a "picadero" Pablo Esparza Fernandez and Miguel Angel Dominguez Carrillo were sentenced by Guillermo Campos Osorio, judge of the 6th Dist. The men were arrested last year by FEAD agents, who had received an anonymous tip.

Jose Luis Salazar Pena, 18, was killed by gunfire in a gang rivalry on Avenida Juárez. Several gang members assaulted the victim, who was accompanied by his brother, while he was speaking on the telephone. The accused killer, captured after a chase, was identified as Ivan Enrique Vasquez Franco, of the Los Leones street gang. According to a report by Salvador Castro in Norte the killer told police "I had to (hit him) because he shot and injured my mother. He thought I'd forgotten."

Jorge Reyes Arzola, 23, was killed by gunfire at in the colonia Plutarco Elias Calles; his death was attributed to gang rivalry. Bullets extracted from his body were of 25, 44, 357, 38, and 32 calibers. Eight gang members were later charged with the crime. In another case Erick Rios Morua, 24, allegedly died at the hands of Jesus Garcia and Rodrigo Garcia , as the victim entered a store to buy a hamburger. He died of knife wounds. Antillon Tapia, alias "El Cookies," died of a severe beating; and state police recovered the body of a man, Carmelo Leon, 35, who apparently died of violent causes as well.

Norte: the execution of 3 brothers has been traced to a power dispute between gangs involved in narcotics trafficking. On October 20, 1996 a squadron of killers burst into the Kumbala Bar in El Paso and massacred 7 persons by gunfire, including the owner of the bar, Luis Ibarra, 43. On November 25, 1999, his brother Rene Ibarra, 29, was gunned down at the door of the Cananas Bar in El Paso, and another brother, Oscar Ibarra, 35, was killed a few weeks later. The Ibarra brothers--there were four--were from Namiquipa, Chihuahua. Another brother is in jail in Albuquerque, accused of narco trafficking and other charges. The 1996 murder resulted in two arrests but the accused were later released when witnesses refused to testify.

January 18, Norte: Sources close to the PGR indicated that after the discovery of the narco-graves on November 29 several dozen persons suspected of being low or mid-level narcotics traffickers, left Juárez. The exodus took place the first week in December; Mexican authorities also indicated they had monitored the arrival in Juárez of persons, especially from the state of Durango, who are trying to take over the territory left by the remnants of the Juárez cartel.

Investigators close to the "narco-grave" investigation suggest that one of the bodies could be a Colombian, Castor Alberto Ochoa Soto, an expert in the distribution and transportation for the major Colombian cartels. He is said to have known the connections between producers, packers, and all of the intermediaries who moved cargo in México, as well as distribution networks in the U.S. The Colombian and his attorney, Antonio Tarazon, were returning on foot to Juárez after the Ochoa had been freed by an El Paso judge of charges of importing six tons of cocaine into the U.S. Reports indicate both men were forced by federal agents into a blue Suburban van on the Mexican side of the bridge.

January 19, Diario: A new municipal police force, the Grupo Especial de Apoyo Policiaco (GEAP), has been formed to patrol the Aldama district; Those assigned to the unit received training from the El Paso SWAT team. The group will try to prevent armed robberies against banks, exchange establishments, and businesses.

Agents of the PGR notified Jorge Salvador Ortiz Gutiérrez and Jorge Salvador Ortiz Loya that they should not interfere with investigators at two properties owned by them. The properties are said to have belonged to Amado Carrillo Fuentes, and are now under investigation by the PGR in connection with the bodies of persons found at the "narco-graves." Diario reported that five members of the Falcon family were taking care of the properties. The Falcon family also acted as caretakers of the Campana property, where the first bodies were found after the November 29 joint FBI-Mexico investigation.

January 20, Diario: Second narco-execution of the year. Carlos Manuel Ochoa Avila, 30, was executed as he opened the door of his pickup to get in. At moment a compact car stopped and a man got out, talked to Ochoa, and then shot him. State police believe he was a victim of organized crime. His body was riddled by 5 nine-mm. bullets.

Municipal police are being assigned to the PGR building apparently to help with security.

Juárez mayor Gustavo Elizondo met with Governor Patricio Martinez to ask for another 450 million pesos to help with security issues and public works such as the extension of Juan Gabriel Avenue to the Casas Grandes highway.

Norte: The internal affairs division of state prosecutor's office fired five officers in connection with the loss of 30 kilos of marijuana that had been seized by police. The names of the persons fired were released, but no other details were given.