MEXICO HOLDS 10 FOR QUESTIONING ABOUT MASSACRE

MEXICO CITY -- Mexican police took 10 people into custody Friday for
questioning in connection with the massacre of 18 people Thursday in the
resort town of Ensenada -- killings police say were definitely drug-related.

The killings occurred on a quiet ranch just north of Ensenada on Baja
California's Pacific Coast. Police said the people killed included seven
children as well as a woman who was eight months pregnant. Three people
survived -- Fermin Castro, the head of the family of victims, who is in a
coma after a gunshot wound to the head; a 15-year-old girl who was not
injured; and a 12-year-old boy who is hospitalized with gunshot wounds.

Police stressed that the people being questioned are not suspects, but they
may have information that could help with the investigation into the
slayings.

The 10 people detained were found in the small border town of Tecate, about
50 miles east of Tijuana, at the end of a mountain highway that runs north
from El Sauzal, the suburb where the killings took place.

Despite the ambiguity over the people taken into custody, police say they
are now sure that drugs were involved in the massacre.

According to neighbors and other witnesses, Fermin Castro is connected to
marijuana growing and trafficking. But authorities say it is unclear for
whom Castro and his extended family worked.

Castro is a member of an Indian tribe that runs small farms in the nearby
Trinidad Valley, according to tribal leaders who staged a protest in
downtown Ensenada on Friday.

Members of the Papai tribe said drug dealers operate in the Trinidad Valley,
often forcing tribal members to do farm work and traffic in marijuana.
Tribal leaders said some members who have refused to work for the dealers
have been beaten.

People who live near Castro's Rancho Rodeo told authorities there was a lot
of traffic at his home, with people arriving at all hours in large vehicles
and even helicopters.

Federal officials believe Castro was a partner in a marijuana operation run
by a lieutenant of the Arellano Felix drug cartel, based in nearby Tijuana.

But Baja California officials say there is still no definite link between
the Castro family and the Arellano Felix cartel. Nor is there yet any link
between the victims and the Juarez cartel that operates along the
U.S.-Mexico border from Texas to Arizona.

The two cartels have been fighting recently over trafficking networks that
supply most of the cocaine and marijuana to the United States.

Police did say Castro appeared to have been tortured before being shot.

They reported finding a blood-stained chair inside the house, and lesions on
Castro's arms and legs. They also found weapons and marijuana inside the
home.

The massacre has rattled Mexican law enforcement officials, who mobilized
quickly, securing military assistance in the investigation. In Tijuana and
Ensenada on Friday, trucks carrying soldiers and state police patrolled
streets and rural roads.

Mexican authorities fear an escalating drug war between the Arellano Felix
cartel and the increasingly fragmented Juarez cartel to the east.

Thursday's massacre was the worst incident in the history of drug-related
violence in Mexico.

Ensenada, a salty town on the rugged Pacific coast where tuna boats harbor,
attracts hundreds of thousands of American tourists each year, and the Baja
state governor, Hector Teren Teren, said he feared the violence could harm
the area's image.

Mercury News wire services contributed to this report.

Checked-by: Don Beck