Mexico detains 13 officers after 11 bodies are found at house

January 30, 2004|Associated Press

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico -- Authorities questioned 13 state police yesterday about drug trafficking and the murders of at least 11 people, feeding fears that officers in this gritty border city take part in the crime they should be fighting.

The 13 officers were detained Wednesday. Their commander and three fellow officers were being sought.

A state police spokesman acknowledged officials have been unable to clean up the force despite firing about 300 officers in the past two years. Thousands of other local, state, and federal law enforcement officers in Mexico have been dismissed in recent years. The money from drug trafficking is "too tempting for people who are not committed to public service," spokesman Mauro Conde said.

Hundreds of murders have gone unsolved in Ciudad Juarez, including the cases of dozens of young women who were strangled and dumped in the desert outside the city.

Conde said the 13 officers focused on drug cases and were not involved in the investigations of the slain women, but they were linked to the bodies of 11 men found this weekend in the backyard of a house in a middle-class neighborhood.

Federal Deputy Attorney General Jose Luis Santiago Vasconcelos also told W Radio in Mexico City that "some elements of the state judicial police" were involved. He said they were "delinquents disguised as public servants, at the service of the interests of drug traffickers."

The man who rented the house, Alejandro Garcia, was arrested Tuesday and told police he took part in the killings at the order of several state police officers and members of the Vicente Carrillo drug gang.

That led officials to investigate all state police officers on the night shift in Ciudad Juarez. Thirteen were taken into custody when they showed up for work Wednesday night, and four others, including their commander, are being sought. The commander, Miguel Angel Loya, did not show up for work Monday and has not been seen since, Conde said.Conde attributed violence in this city of 1.2 million to the growing drug war that has killed dozens of people so far this year.