Frontera NorteSur June 2000

Jeff Barnet, FNS Writer

Six of the 9 Bodies Exhumed in "Narcograves" Investigation Identified

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), in conjunction with the PGR, identified six of the nine bodies discovered during the highly publicized "mass grave" excavation in Cd. Juárez, which began November 29, 1999. A U.S. government informant told authorities that perhaps 100 bodies might be found at the sites, two ranches which allegedly were owned by people with connections to the cartel formerly headed by Amado Carrillo Fuentes.

Four of the six bodies identified were citizens of El Paso--three were natives and one was a naturalized citizen originally born in México. The two other victims were Mexican citizens, one a former police officer and the other a lawyer. The police officer, Raul Sanchez Alarcon, had served time in jail for drug trafficking charges, and was last seen at home by his family. The lawyer, from Hermosillo, Sinaloa, was last seen crossing into México with a friend who had just been acquitted of drug transport charges in an El Paso court.

Agents are still trying to determine the identity of the other three bodies. According to Frank Evans, agent-in-charge of the El Paso FBI office, "We will look at every potential missing person to try to identify these people."

The PGR has detained three suspects, all alleged members of the Carrillo Cartel, in connection with the murders: José Cruz Avila Angel, Jesús Chávez Dominguez (alias Chuck Norris), and Gustavo Mendoza (alias Raymundo Pérez Hijar). Mendoza survived two assassination attempts, in 1997 and 2000. His elbow was shattered in the last attempt, and he was arrested after being transported to a Juárez hospital.

Sources: El Paso Times, El Diario

U.S., México Agents Make Spectacular Marijuana Seizures

U.S. authorities seized six tons, and Mexican authorities seven tons of marijuana in separate drug seizures which occurred within two weeks of each other. The U.S. bust was the largest seizure of marijuana in El Paso in a decade.

Agents from Mexico's PGR found the marijuana in a tractor trailer carrying 264 tanks of propane gas, April 22. However, only 80 of the tanks contained marijuana. The driver of the truck said his destination was the United States. The shipment was seized at kilometer 170 of the San Buenaventura-Nuevo Casas Grandes highway in Chihuahua. The driver of the truck was arrested and charged with crimes against the public health.

U.S. Customs agents in El Paso found nearly six tons of marijuana in a tractor trailer May 3 after being alerted by a drug-sniffing dog on the Zaragoza Bridge. According to Gene Kerven, El Paso port director for customs, the street value of the drugs was estimated at $11.5 million.

"Drug smugglers are becoming desperate because we've tightened the line of Border Patrol and INS Inspectors along the border, " said Kerven.  "They took a gamble, and they lost."

Customs officials found bricks of marijuana in cardboard boxes. Other boxes in the truck contained seat belts. The driver of the truck escaped on foot by running into México on a pedestrian bridge.

According to customs spokesperson Roger Maier, the largest seizure of marijuana in El Paso occurred in 1983, when six and a half tons were confiscated at the Bridge of the Americas.

Sources: El Diario, El Paso Times

Human Rights Activists Declare "Zero Tolerance" A Failure

The Commission for Solidarity in the Defense of Human Rights declared on April 29 that Chihuahua Governor Patricio Martínez' "Zero Tolerance" program a failure in its first year of operation. In the year 1999, according to the group's annual report, crime did not decrease as predicted by the governor's office.

However, the group did say that the state has profited financially through sanctions and fines against the illegal sale of alcohol to minors.

"The program has served to disguise crime statistics," said the report. "It is not possible to analyze the meaning of statistics without an efficient computer system and a way to compare facts."

The report also said that  public insecurity remains a problem throughout the state, and that the "social disintegration" generated by drug trafficking is "serious and irreversible" in the Sierra region of Chihuahua populated by the Tarahumara natives.

Source: El Norte