'TRULY HORRID' SEARCH AT BORDER

Dead Thought To Be Victims Of Drug Trade

The windblown hillside terrain appears barren. Buried under the scrub brush
and rocky, bleached earth, however, are the bodies of lawyers, engineers,
police informants, laborers, corrupt police officers and possibly 22 U.S.
citizens, according to Mexican police.

''We believe these people were killed for their knowledge or for being
witnesses to drug-trafficking endeavors,'' Assistant FBI Director Thomas
Pickard said in Washington. ''Most of the information we have shows these
individuals were buried there at least 2-3 years ago, so it's not a recent
situation.''

The bodies, estimated to number about 100, are victims of 50 years of
fierce drug gang activity on the border between Texas and Mexico. The mass
graves being uncovered by U.S. agents and Mexican soldiers were brought to
the attention of U.S. law enforcement officers five days ago.

For at least the past 15 years, this mountain pass has been used by the
Carrillo Fuentes drug cartel to smuggle tons of cocaine, marijuana and
heroin into the USA.

U.S. authorities say Amado Carrillo Fuentes, the so-called Lord of the
Skies, smuggled planeloads of drugs from South America through this area.

The news of the grave sites comes as U.S. law enforcement authorities say
Mexican drug traffickers are sending larger quantities of drugs into the
USA. Seizures of marijuana by U.S. agencies along the southwestern border,
where 70% of all illicit drugs enter the country, are up 33% over last year.

Police on both sides of the border consider the Fuentes gang the most
violent in Mexico. Police also say they were powerless to stop an
organization that either bought off or killed off anyone in its way.

Fuentes died after plastic surgery and liposuction two years ago, and a
bloody war of succession broke out. Mexican and U.S. officials have said
the cartel split into three branches after Carrillo's death -- one based in
Cancun in the southeast, another in the north led by Carrillo Fuentes'
brother, Vicente Fuentes, and a third branch on the West Coast.

Hit men wielding AK-47s killed more than a dozen people in several
high-profile assassinations in Juarez restaurants in 1997. Others simply
disappeared.

About 200 people have vanished in Juarez since 1993. Most are believed to
be the victims of drug traffickers. International human rights groups,
including the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights and Amnesty
International, have looked into the reports of kidnappings and
disappearances of people in Mexico for years.

Those groups reported in August that 202 people have vanished from Juarez
since 1993, including 18 U.S. citizens. All but one of those 202 people
were men.

On Tuesday, FBI officials and the head of Mexico's federal organized crime
office said at a news conference in El Paso that they have begun a joint
investigation to uncover and identify the alleged victims of drug violence.

Mexican authorities said they have reports that as many as 100 bodies might
be buried in scattered sites 14-22 miles outside of town. They say they
don't know what the final tally will be. As of late Tuesday, the remains of
one victim had been dug up.

The largest site where U.S. and Mexican police are known to be digging is a
former equestrian center and shooting range.

Tuesday, under a faded sign that read ''Welcome to the Paso del Norte Gun
Club,'' heavily armed Mexican army troops and federal police wearing ski
masks kept a wary eye. Locals call the place ''Hidden Treasure Camp,'' but
no one in the area seemed to know why or when that name was adopted.
Outside the 20-foot barbed-wire fence, dozens of onlookers and news crews
gathered.

Several hundred yards away, investigators, including FBI forensic experts
just returned from digging up evidence of mass executions in the former
Yugoslavia, combed the hard, rocky earth for clues and bodies. Mexican
canine units were focused on the far southeast corner of the compound,
which is three blocks long and one block wide.

Some of the missing and presumed dead were last seen in the custody of
local or state police, Mexican police said Tuesday. For years, corrupt
police officers have been thought to be working for the powerful drug gang
that controls this region of the border.

FBI officials in El Paso said that the case is under Mexican jurisdiction
and that they are involved only at the request of the Mexican government.
FBI officials were careful to direct questions to Mexican authorities. They
say they don't want to jeopardize the joint investigation or the new level
of cooperation they enjoy with their Mexican counterparts.

While both sides released few details, investigators at the former gun club
worked into the night.

''This place was very popular for many years, starting about 10 years
ago,'' said Ignacio Rodriguez, one of dozens of area residents who had
gathered since early morning.

Rodriguez noted the comings and goings of ''very, very well-dressed people
in very fancy cars.''

Tuesday, a caravan of vehicles, including two large rental trucks, several
all-terrain and sport-utility vehicles, a large FBI vehicle and a backhoe,
entered and parked near a warehouse building that now serves as the
operation's field headquarters.

Remains will be taken to El Paso for processing and DNA identification,
officials said.

''We seemed to have gotten used to all the violence here,'' Rodriguez said.
''But this is truly horrid.

My God, where is this all going to end?''