POSSIBLE REMAINS FOUND NEAR JUAREZ

Mexican and U.S. authorities searching for scores of bodies that may
be buried on the outskirts Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, said yesterday they
found what could be human remains at one of four desolate sites where
the investigation is focused.

A U.S. official familiar with the search, meanwhile, said an
unspecified number of informants for U.S. law-enforcement agencies may
be among the more than 100 suspected victims of drug-related violence
who have disappeared from this border region in recent years and may
be among those possibly buried at the sites.

The El Paso-Juarez area has long been described by authorities as a
multibillion-dollar conduit for Colombian cocaine flowing into the
United States, a corridor run by a cartel reputedly headed by a
Mexican drug lord, Amado Carrillo Fuentes, before his death in 1997.
According to an association of families of "disappeared persons" here,
at least 196 people, including some Americans, have vanished in the
region since the early 1990s, many of them informants and low-level
associates of the cartel.

On Monday, dozens of Mexican federal police and FBI agents descended
on two ranches on the desolate outskirts of Juarez in a search for
bodies that expanded to include four sites in the area, said Jose
Larrieta Carrasco, the head of the organized crime unit in the Mexican
attorney general's office.

Speaking to reporters in El Paso, Carrasco provided only sketchy
details on today's find, saying that investigators had turned up "some
remains that could be human remains." He said he could not estimate
the number of bodies that may be buried at the four sites.

He also declined to say specifically what led authorities to the
sites. "We have very concrete information as to these sites, and we
did use technical equipment to locate these sites, and we're still
working," he said.

"We are in the process of investigating," he said. "The work continues
at an accelerated rate. ... What I could point out is, we have
information in Mexico that could lead to bodies of people who have
disappeared."

The discovery comes as U.S. authorities say increased amounts of
marijuana and other drugs have been flowing across the Mexican border
into the United States. FBI Deputy Director Thomas J. Pickard said the
joint drug-related probe is taking place in the U.S. and in Mexico.

U.S. officials who declined to be identified said the probe was aided
by a former Mexican police officer who played a role in the suspected
killings and who provided critical information to the FBI that led to
sites.

In Washington, Pickard said there had been an amassing of shared
intelligence by the FBI and Mexican authorities over a period of
months that led to the searches of the four sites.

"We have developed information from a number of different sources,"
Pickard said. "The FBI developed information, the Mexican authorities
developed information, and we brought that information together, and
we have the results we have right now. We are still trying to develop
further information."

As for who may be buried at the sites, a U.S. official who asked not
to be identified said today, "The speculation still is that there are
a number of victims related to drug trafficking, some of which are
suspected of being informants" for the Drug Enforcement
Administration, the U.S. Customs Service and the FBI.

"Most of the information we have to date shows these individuals were
buried there at least two to three years ago," Pickard said. "We
believe these individuals were killed for their knowledge of, or
participation [in], or being witnesses to, certain drug endeavors." Of
the Americans possibly buried at the sites, "first and foremost, we
want to find the remains and bring them back to the families," Pickard
said.

Pickard said Mexican officials have detained some people who lived on
or around the ranches where the mass graves have been discovered and
noted that contrary to some media reports, no U.S. law enforcement
officials are missing or believed to be buried there.

On Monday, Mexican officials said that 22 of the bodies that could be
buried at the sites are Americans. But speaking to reporters today,
President Clinton said he had received no confirmation that 22 of the
victims were Americans.

Clinton called the mass graves a "horrible example" of the excesses of
Mexican drug cartels. "It reinforces the imperative of our trying not
only to protect our border but to work with the Mexican authorities,"
he said.

In addition to digging at the sites, Pickard said the FBI would be
using "ground-piercing radar" to search for remains. He said the FBI
had entered Mexico to assist in the effort at the request of
government officials there.

Duggan reported from El Paso; Vise from Washington. Staff writer
Lorraine Adams in Washington and correspondent Molly Moore in Juarez
contributed to this report.