MEXICO FINDS NEW HUMAN REMAINS NEAR U.S. BORDER

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Investigators looking for the victims of drug wars
buried in suspected mass graves near the Mexican border town of Ciudad
Juarez unearthed two more bodies Monday.

The discovery brings the body count to eight after a week-long investigation
involving hundreds of Mexican police and soldiers and 65 FBI agents who have
been digging at four sites near the U.S. border.

"Today, in the afternoon, at the site identified as point number two,
remains corresponding to two individuals were found," the Mexican Attorney
General's (PGR) office said in a statement.

The two bodies discovered Monday were buried together approximately 1 1/2
metres underground. No details about the identity of the remains were
available, a PGR spokesman said.

Nothing new has been found at the first area being dug, on a ranch known as
La Campana, the spokesman said.

The PGR said six bodies earlier found at the first site were those of
clothed men - two aged 35, the others over 50 - one of whom was shot in the
head. The others were probably suffocated.

All were found with pieces of silver-colored adhesive tape while four had
their mouths and noses covered by bandages. One had been tied at the legs
and arms.

Attorney General Jorge Madrazo said he began investigating the
disappearances of up to 100 people in mid-1997 and it had taken until now to
gather sufficient information to begin a search near Ciudad Juarez, close to
El Paso, Texas.

Around 50 per cent of the cocaine consumed by the United States is said to
pass through or near Juarez on its way to market.

But former top U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration official Phil Jordan
told Reuters in an interview Monday that since the 1970s, drug traffickers
have used ranches throughout Mexico as "burial grounds."

"Some are used for drug storage and to grow (drugs), and others are used to
torture and kill informants and others who run afoul of the cartels," said
Jordan, who retired from the DEA after 30 years. "It's common knowledge, to
both the Mexican and U.S. governments."

Jordan said DEA informants may be buried in other grave sites in Mexico.

"A lot of our informants were killed by the cartels and the (state and
federal) police," he said.