MEXICAN, U.S. OFFICIALS KNEW ABOUT GRAVES, EX-AGENT CLAIMS

Search For Remains Continues At Four Sites South Of Juarez

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico -- As the search for bodies near this border city
came to a lull Thursday, former and current federal drug enforcement agents
said it was only a matter of time before such a massive recovery effort was
undertaken.

Given the ferociousness of Mexican drug cartels and the number of people
reported missing in and around Ciudad Juarez this decade, the former head
of the Drug Enforcement Administration's El Paso Intelligence Center said
he is not surprised to see law enforcement officers converging on desert
ranches.

"The Mexican federal government and the (DEA) know that every major
(narcotics) player in Mexico who has a ranch, has graves on that ranch,"
Phil Jordan said. "And the Mexican police know there are graves on those
ranches because they're the ones protecting them."

More than 500 Mexican soldiers, 174 federal anti-drug agents and about 65
FBI agents used ground-piercing radar, a backhoe, shovels and sieves to
search for graves at four sites south of Juarez.

Two of the sites are ranches with ties to the powerful Juarez drug cartel.
Authorities have not identified the other two sites.

When the search began Monday, Mexican authorities speculated they could
find as many as 100 bodies, including 22 Americans. As of Wednesday, they
had found the remains of just six people. None of them have been identified.

The Juarez newspaper El Diario reported that an owner and foreman of the
main search site, Rancho de la Campana, were taken into custody by the
Mexican attorney general's office.

The owner, Jesus Manuel Ortiz Gutierrez, and Guillermo Falcon Jasso were
taken to Mexico City for interrogation Tuesday, the newspaper reported.

Authorities believe the sites are burial grounds used by the Juarez drug
cartel, which was Mexico's largest and most violent drug smuggling outfit
in the mid-1990s.

The cartel has been in the midst of a bloody civil war as well as in
conflict with rival drug organizations since the 1997 death of its leader,
Amado Carillo Fuentes.

Jordan said there are probably secret cemeteries like the ones U.S. and
Mexican law enforcement authorities are now excavating all over the
northern Mexican states.

"This is a typical modus operandi of the cartels. They bury their enemies
where no one can get to them," Jordan said Thursday.

Mike Stokes, supervisory special agent for the DEA in El Paso, refuted
rumors that the agency had prior knowledge of the graves near Juarez but
failed to act on the information.

"As far as I know, no one came to us and told us that on this ranch there
were bodies buried there," Stokes said. "I can't imagine anyone sitting on
this information if he had it."

Stokes also said he has seen no evidence to corroborate the story told by a
paid informant that this scene was a burial ground for drug-related
killings. The bodies could have been put there by anyone for any reason,
Stokes said.

Human-rights organizations have charted numerous abductions and killings in
the Juarez region this decade. The Association for Friends and Relatives of
Missing Persons claims to have the names of 196 people who mysteriously
vanished in and around Juarez. In addition, at least 200 young women have
been abducted or found murdered in the area since 1993.

Guadalupe Ramirez, secretary of the Independent Chihuahua state Committee
for the Defense of Human Rights, said she believes Mexican authorities know
where the bodies are buried.

"They couldn't hide it any longer," she said. "We always believed there
were bodies on more ranches. It's only because of the U.S. pressure that it
has come out."

Chronicle reporter James Pinkerton and Chronicle News Services contributed
to this story.