POLICE OFFICERS QUESTIONED IN KILLINGS OF 12 PEOPLE FOUND AT DRUG SAFE HOUSE

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

The announcement came as investigators found a 12th body buried in the yard
of a house in a middle-class neighborhood.

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 lawmen 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 of 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 12 bodies.

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 that type of people "are nothing more than delinquents disguised as
public servants, at the service of the interests of drug traffickers."
Later, he toured the house.

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, didn't show up for work Monday and hasn't
been seen since, Conde said.

The officers were flown to Mexico City, where federal agents questioned
them about possible ties to drug trafficking and to the bodies found at the
house.

The discovery of the bodies led relatives of some of the dozens of other
missing men to ask police for information. Late Wednesday, relatives were
allowed into the morgue to try to identify the remains, some of which had
been buried months before.

Lorenza Benavides, vice president of the Association of Relatives and
Friends of the Disappeared, said her organization had the names of at least
197 missing men.

"We have always said police officers are involved in all of these crimes,"
Benavides said. "But our complaints have always fallen on deaf ears."

She said her organization has asked federal authorities to search three
more houses around Ciudad Juarez where neighbors reported hearing screams.
Officials said those were among six houses for which they were seeking
search warrants.

Residents say they aren't surprised by the arrests. Luz Elena Caraveo,
whose brother disappeared along with his friend a year ago, said witnesses
told her that police kidnapped the two men.

"One is always afraid to talk and look (for answers) because one could
easily become a target," she added.

Conde blamed violence in this city of 1.2 million on a growing drug war
that has claimed dozens of lives so far this year.

"Juarez is a tough city, but it's a city where people still live," he said.
"Those who live their lives honestly don't have a reason to feel persecuted
or harassed. Everybody is exposed, but the victims are usually part of
organized crime."