DEAD MIGRANTS WERE SMUGGLERS

ORGAN PIPE CACTUS NATIONAL MONUMENT - The three men who died while trying
to cross the remote desert here yesterday were drug smugglers, according to
a survivor.

Francisco Espinoza Sanez, 39, from Santana, Son., told the Tucson Citizen
in a hospital interview that he crossed the border Saturday with 11 other
drug smugglers.

The U.S. Border Patrol confirmed he told agents a similar story.

After making a delivery of marijuana, four members of the group, including
Espinoza Sanez, misjudged the distance to the border. They wandered through
the desert without food or water in 115-degree temperatures, he said.

Adjusting his hospital bed covers, Espinoza Sanez said the deadly trek was
not an amateur's mistake.

"We've been in the business for years," he said, shaking his head. "They do
this trip all the time."

The three dead men, believed to be between the ages of 20 and 30, were
found by the Border Patrol's search, trauma and rescue team just 4.5 miles
north of the U.S.-Mexico border, near a landmark deceptively named Dripping
Springs.

The agents were working with information from Mexican authorities, who
notified them at 8:30 p.m. Sunday that a man in Sonoyta, Son., reported
leaving four men behind in distress near Puerto Blanco Drive in the monument.

Using a map drawn by the man in Sonoyta - dotted with tiny crosses to mark
the men's locations - the agents found Espinoza Sanez at 2:30 a.m. Sunday
off a scenic road in the popular monument.

He was delirious from heat exhaustion, slipping in and out of consciousness
and had stripped down to his underwear, agents said.

The Border Patrol and Pima County sheriff's investigators were working
today to confirm the reported connection between the dead bodies and
Espinoza Sanez, all found within a one-mile radius of each other.

"There are a lot of questions," said Border Patrol spokesman Rene Noriega.

Espinoza Sanez said he was going to receive $1,500 for dropping the drugs
at the base of a mountain north of the Border Patrol checkpoint on Highway 85.

The group was headed back home, using flags from desert water stations as
landmarks and guidelines when things went wrong.

Espinoza Sanez said his group became separated from the others, and they
had no food or water. Some members of the group had smoked marijuana, he
said, and were complaining of extreme thirst.

He said he was the first to succumb to the heat.

"They left me behind," he said. "I tried to walk, I stood up and took a
step, but then I fell again. Then they left me."

The men apparently died of heat exposure although autopsies are pending,
said Border Patrol spokesman Rob Daniels.

The first body was found shortly after 6 a.m.

Another was discovered at 8:10 a.m. about one-fourth mile southwest of
Espinoza Sanez on a different trail. Tracking footprints, agents determined
the man wandered aimlessly before he died.

The third body was found at about 10:30 a.m. about one-half mile from
Espinoza Sanez. The man had settled into a wash to die, stripping off most
of his clothing before succumbing to the heat.

"The shoes were up under the layup," said Kyle Such, a Border Patrol agent,
gesturing to a spot yards from the body. "The shirt was laid out over the
bush, and the belt was down there."

The Sheriff's Department is investigating the case, Deputy Steve Easton
said this morning.

The deaths bring to 53 the known number of illegal entrants who died in the
Tucson Sector since Oct. 1.

The tally does not include the 14 men who died in the desert west of the
monument in May, because that was in the Yuma Sector.