MUTILATION DEATHS CALLED MESSAGE TO POLICE, RIVALS

Three 'Severely Tortured' Are Found In JuaRez; Drug Link Is Suspected

EL PASO - The bodies of three men found inside a stolen sport utility
vehicle across the Rio Grande in Ciudad Juarez are believed to have been
mutilated and left in the Mexican city's downtown as a gruesome message to
police and drug-cartel rivals.

Law enforcement authorities on both sides of the border say the men, one of
whom was from El Paso, had their right index fingers cut off after they
were beaten to death. One of the men was found with the finger stuffed
inside his mouth. The fingers of the other two men were found in their
pants pockets.

"From what little we know, these were organized-crime-related murders,"
said Art Werge, spokesman for the FBI office in El Paso.

"This violent, vicious way of killing people is done to convey a message to
law enforcement or a rival group. It is what we call a criminal enterprise
murder. These men were seen as informants, and it was all done on purpose."

El Paso police investigators and the FBI in El Paso have worked closely
with Mexican authorities, providing training on policing techniques
involving crime scenes, criminal investigations and technology.

The law enforcement agencies regularly exchange information, but the U.S.
lawmen do not participate directly in any criminal investigation in Mexico.

The dead men have been identified as Julio Cesar Navarro Manzano, 18, of El
Paso; Moises David Estrada Torres, 25, of Los Angeles; and Jorge Villa
Lopez, 23, of Juarez. The men were last seen alive around May 9, according
to Chihuahua state police.

"The bodies of two of the men were found stacked on top of each other and
the other was in the rear seat," said Oscar Valadez Reyes, deputy Chihuahua
state attorney general. "They were severely tortured, there were no bullet
wounds and their index fingers cut off as some form of message. At this
point, all I can say is that we are continuing the investigation."

The SUV was parked near a funeral home, police said.

According to Mexican investigators, the slayings are likely tied to drug
trafficking, and because of the public way in which the deaths were
committed, it could signal a new struggle among area cartels.

After the 1997 death of Juarez drug lord Amado Carrillo Fuentes, rival
gangs committed a series of highly public slayings at Juarez restaurants
and nightclubs as they struggled to gain control of a criminal enterprise
earning billions of dollars.

Public executions that included the deaths of lawyers, doctors and
bystanders appeared to stop as abruptly as they began. Authorities,
however, believe the killings continued at a less public level.

"This whole thing is one big message to everybody from drug traffickers to
police," said a veteran Mexican investigator, who spoke on condition of
anonymity for fear of reprisals from the traffickers.

"The finger in the mouth is a clear message that if you talk, you die, and
leaving the bodies in a stolen truck says, 'You can't catch me even if you
try.' I just hope we don't start seeing more of these, because it could get
bad."

The Jeep Grand Cherokee in which the bodies were discovered was stolen in
December several blocks from where it was found late last week, police said.