11 BODIES FOUND IN TIJUANA OVER 3 DAYS

Six Are Found Monday Morning, Shot Execution-Style and Partially
Burned in What Appears to Be Drug-Related Violence.

TIJUANA -- Police discovered the tortured and burned bodies of six men
in an empty lot Monday morning, ending a period of relative calm in
this border city beset by drug war violence.

Eleven bodies have been discovered since Saturday in violence believed
to be drug-related, including the corpse of a woman found in a barrel,
state and federal authorities said.

The weekend tally pushed the city's death toll this year to more than
260, compared with about 152 homicides at this time last year, and
underscored authorities' difficulties curbing organized crime.

None of the victims had been identified by late Monday, and
authorities did not offer any motives for the killings. But the grisly
nature of the deaths -- some of the victims' heads were wrapped in
plastic -- suggested that the victims were killed by gangsters,
authorities said.

Tijuana had remained relatively quiet since a shootout in April
claimed the lives of 13 gunmen. That incident, police sources say,
possibly stemmed from a feud between rival branches of the Arellano
Felix drug cartel, which has controlled drug trafficking in the city
for more than a decade.

It's unclear whether the latest killings augur more violence,
authorities said. "We have to wait and see. . . . Obviously, we are
worried," Deputy Atty. Gen. Salvador Ortiz Morales said at a news
conference at police headquarters here.

The city's organized crime groups have been under pressure since
President Felipe Calderon dispatched the Mexican military to Tijuana
in January 2007. More than 3,000 soldiers, supported by federal and
state agents, now spearhead the offensive against the cartels.

The weekend's slayings bore many hallmarks of organized crime hits.
The six men found early Monday had been shot execution-style. Their
bodies had been doused with gasoline and set ablaze; some of the
victims were partially burned. On Saturday night, three men were found
fatally shot in an SUV. The body of a man discovered Monday in the
Tijuana River bore signs of torture and was wrapped in a carpet.

In other developments, gunmen in Culiacan, the capital of Sinaloa,
killed the head of the state police, Raymundo Gonzalez Mendoza. Five
other people in Sinaloa also were slain, including two who were
decapitated.

So far this year, more than 2,000 people have died in violence related
to the drug war across the country, according to the Mexico City-based
newspaper El Universal. Last year's total through June was 1,410,
according to the newspaper.