TIJUANA MASSACRE TRACED TO DRUG DEAL GONE BAD BETWEEN RIVAL GANGS

MEXICO CITY -- Gunmen linked to the Tijuana drug cartel shot and
killed 19 people near the U.S. border earlier this fall because one of
the victims, a rival drug dealer, owed them marijuana and was refusing
to pay up, Mexican judicial officials said Tuesday.

Gang leaders were angry at local trafficker Fermin Castro Ramirez
because Castro had stolen 800 kilos of their marijuana, officials said.

In a bid to get their drugs back, armed men, some of whom may have
worked as gunmen for Tijuana cartel boss Ramon Arellano Felix, went to
Castro's ranch outside Ensenada in the early hours of Sept. 17.

But after an argument, they systematically gunned down Castro and his
family, said Jose Luis Chavez, the attorney general's representative
in Baja California state, where the massacre took place. At least 19
people died in the massacre, including a baby and six youngsters.

"They went to get their 800 kilos," Chavez told a news conference
Tuesday. "After a fierce argument they started to get the family
members from the ranch and line them up on the ground face down." One
of the gang members "then gave the order to shoot."

At least a dozen people took part in the killing and many of them were
intoxicated or had taken drugs before going to the ranch, Chavez said.
Three suspects are under arrest charged with murder, kidnapping and
drug-related crimes. Arrest warrants have been issued for another ten
suspects, at least one of whom is believed to be in the United States,
Chavez added.

Only two people -- a young girl and Castro -- were thought to have
initially survived the attack. Castro, however, succumbed to his
wounds two weeks later. The girl was instrumental in helping
authorities with their investigation, officials said.

Officials have described Castro, a 38-year-old Paipai Indian and
former schoolteacher who had recently become wealthy, as one of the
local smugglers who has made Ensenada an increasingly key spot in the
area's drug trade.

The region north of Ensenada leading toward the U.S. border is a key
corridor for Mexican narcotics traffickers attempting to take drugs
into the United States.

Each year, dozens of tons of Mexican marijuana, heroin and
methamphetamines, as well as cocaine, heroin and marijuana from
Colombia, Africa and the Far East, are smuggled through Baja
California on their way to the United States, American and Mexican
anti-narcotics officials agree.

That traffic hit a peak in the mid-1990s, but renewed customs efforts
along the United States' border has stemmed the flow somewhat. A
crackdown in Mexico against the Arellano Felix family has also played
a significant role in limiting the flow, and the drug experts said the
brothers have moved east along the Mexican border in search of new
trafficking routes.

One of the brothers, the notoriously violent Ramon Arellano, was last
year placed on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List.

Authorities say the new round of murders could be the result of
fighting among heirs eager to take over the lucrative Tijuana corridor
which Ramon and his siblings left behind.

At least 292 people have been killed in Tijuana this year, police and
news reports said.

Checked-by: Rich O'Grady