MEXICO OFFICIALS TARGET POLICE IN DRUG DEALING

In Ciudad Juarez, 13 officers are being questioned about ties to drug
traffickers and the murders of at least 12 people.

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico (AP)- Officials announced they are questioning 13
state police officers yesterday about ties to drug trafficking and the
murders of at least 12 people, feeding fears that police in this gritty
border city take part in the crime they should be fighting.

The announcement came on the same day that investigators found another body
- - the 12th so far - buried in the yard of a house in a middle-class Ciudad
Juarez neighborhood.

A spokesman for the state police acknowledged that authorities have been
unable to clean up the force despite firing some 300 officers in the past
two years. Thousands of other local, state and federal lawmen have been
fired from posts nationwide.

The money from drug trafficking is "too tempting for people who are not
committed to public service," Mauro Conde said. Later, in a news
conference, Deputy State Attorney General Oscar Valadez called the arrests
a "terrible blow to a police force that has been trying to clean up its image."

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 town.

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 12 men unearthed so far this week.

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 those type of people "are nothing more than
delinquents disguised as public servants, at the service of the interests
of drug traffickers."

Later, Vasconcelos, accompanied by a team of soldiers, toured the house
where the bodies were found, but made no comments to reporters.

The man who rented the house, Alejandro Garcia, was arrested on 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 on Monday and
hasn't been seen since, Conde said.

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

Many locals 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,
adding: "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."