19 MASSACRED IN MEXICO; TIE TO DRUGS SEEN

MEXICO CITY -- At least 19 men, women and children were lined up and shot
dead yesterday near the resort town of Ensenada, 60 miles south of San
Diego, in what police say could be a drug-related massacre ordered by
leaders of one of Mexico's biggest trafficking cartels.

Police say the families were rousted by gunmen around 4:30 a.m. yesterday,
dragged outside, lined against concrete walls, and shot repeatedly with
assault rifles, handguns, and at least one shotgun.

Three people initially survived the massacre, including a 15-year-old girl
who reportedly hid under a bed and was not injured. One person died later,
and police said another survivor remains hospitalized in a coma. He was
identified as Fermin Castro, 35, the suspected head of a group of families
believed to be marijuana growers for the powerful and ruthless
Arellano-Felix drug cartel, headquartered in nearby Tijuana.

Three related families

The dead included seven children and five women, one of whom was pregnant.
They were members of three related families. Two of the families were
identified as Castros and the other as Floreses . They lived in adjoining
homes in an upper-class neighborhood in El Sauzal, a quiet seaside suburb
just north of Ensenada. The families operated farms in nearby valleys. "The
state and the country are in a state of consternation over the killing of
19 people in El Sauzal," Baja California Gov. Hector Teran Teran said
yesterday. "It appears to be related to narco-trafficking because of the
ties of Fermin Castro to the Arellano-Felix organization."

The governor said authorities were looking for three automobiles seen
leaving the scene of the shooting.

Police said the weapons used and the gangland-style executions led them to
believe the murders were drug-related. Also, a member of the Castro family
was gunned down in front of an Ensenada shopping center about a month ago,
according to police sources and Baja California press reports.

A drug-gang hit?

A Mexico City criminologist, contacted by Baja authorities shortly after
yesterday's shooting, said that descriptions of the scene bear signs of a
drug-gang hit.

"This is because of the methodical nature of the incident," said the
criminologist, who asked not to be identified. "The assailants took the
time to drag 22 people out of bed, line them up, and then shot them. And
it's usually drug gangsters who can afford these types of weapons."

The criminologist also said there were several farm workers on the property
in the predawn hours, but none was among the victims.

Some adults were clad in underwear and T-shirts. Others wore pajamas. All
were riddled with bullet holes. Shell casings from assault-rifle bullets
littered the dirt driveway in front of the two homes, where horses and
other farm animals wandered about. Toys were strewn around the driveway, as
were shattered glass and overturned patio furniture. Inside, there were few
signs of struggle.

An Ensenada radio reporter said that the families were not rich, but that
some were involved in organized crime rings that also ran high-stakes
cock-fighting matches in the area. Police would not comment on that report.

The stronger motive remains drugs. This region of Baja California, near the
U.S.-Mexico border, is the stronghold of the Arellano-Felix drug cartel,
Mexico's biggest and richest trafficking gang.

Police say drug-related violence has been on the rise in Ensenada in recent
years, as the Arellano-Felix gang spreads its distribution network.

Narcotics shoot-outs

Police said that narcotics shootouts have been a common occurrence along
the border, especially in the last year. The Arellano-Felix family is
locked in a struggle over Mexico's lucrative drug-trafficking business with
the Juarez cartel, which operates along much of the U.S.-Mexico border from
Texas to Arizona.

Last week the cofounder of the Juarez cartel, Rafael Munoz Talavera, was
found dead in the trunk of a car near the Mexico-Texas border. His death
came a year after the Juarez cartel's chief, Amado Carrillo Fuentes, died
after plastic surgery in a Mexico City hospital.

U.S. drug agents say that since Carrillo Fuentes' death, the cartels have
been fighting among themselves for control of trafficking lanes that move
up to 70 percent of the cocaine and marijuana imported annually by American
drug gangs.

Checked-by: Joel W. Johnson