MEXICO POLICE QUESTIONING 10 IN SUSPECTED DRUG-GANG SLAYINGS

EL SAUZAL, Mexico - Ten people were being questioned Friday in connection
with slaughter of 18 people that police blamed on a drug rivalry.

Meanwhile, the target of the Thursday attack, Fermin Castro, remained in a
coma under police and military protection, authorities said.

Two others who also survived the attack - 12-year-old Mario Alberto Flores
who suffered gunshot wounds, and Mr. Castro's 15-year-old daughter, Viviana
Castro, who escaped injury by hiding under a bed - also were under police
protection.

Speculation Friday still revolved around the possibility that the killings
stemmed from Mr. Castro's alleged involvement with drug traffickers and
marijuana production.

The weekly Zeta, based in Tijuana 60 miles north of this beach resort, in
June identified Mr. Castro as a member of the Tijuana-based Arellano Felix
drug gang and said he was known as "The Iceman."

Zeta also said Mr. Castro's sister Sandra and her husband, Francisco Flores
Altamirano, were involved in drug smuggling. The couple died in the attack.

"I can't understand why, having all that information in their hands, they
didn't do anything," Zeta publisher Jesus Blancornelas said in an interview
on Mexico's Televisa network.

Marco Antonio de la Fuente, the Baja California state attorney general,
said police were investigating all leads.

"In the investigation, some people have said things that suggest that Mr.
Castro was involved in drug-related activities," he said. "We know there
were problems among competing drug trafficking groups, but we can't say
definitely it was a revenge killing."

The 18 people were killed early Thursday when gunmen went to a three-home
compound in El Sauzal, outside of Ensenada Mexico, pulled members of three
families out of bed and shot them.

On Friday, police went to a home near Tecate, about 50 miles north of
Ensenada, and detained 10 people for questioning. They also found nine
high-powered rifles and pistols in four vehicles. Authorities also
recovered 100 packages of marijuana from the vehicles.

Authorities declined to elaborate on those being questioned, the motives or
links to the victims, but said that they were conducting ballistics tests
on the weapons to determine if they had been used in the slayings.

On Friday, people in the small community were still talking about the
slayings.

"I heard a woman say, 'Don't kill the children,' but they fired anyway,"
said Eugenio Sanchez Avendano, 65, the night watchman at Custom Ceramics, a
factory within spitting distance of the scene of the crime. "Then when it
was over, silence. Silence."

But Mr. Castro's neighbors said they still didn't understand the drug
connection.

"These were good people, good kids," said Gerardo, a neighbor who declined
to give his last name. "I have family, too. They helped all of us out a
lot, and people liked them. This is very sad; it hurts your heart."

Neighbors said Mr. Castro came from the small indigenous village of Santa
Catarina farther down the coast. He began his career as a bilingual
teacher, teaching Spanish to children of Santa Catarina who spoke an
indigenous language.

They said he moved to El Sauzal more than a decade ago and got into cattle
rancher and a few years ago put together one of Baja California's only
rodeos, and drew hundreds of spectators.

He lived at Rancho del Rodeo, built between Baja California's sun-drenched
hills and rocky sea coast, along the road between Tijuana and Ensenada.

Behind the gates, two sturdy, two-story houses, one with a satellite dish,
were home to Mr. Castro, Mr. Flores and their families.

Said Victor Gutierrez, 47, another neighbor who was feeding the horses and
cattle that belonged to the victims, "They were respected, hundreds of
people came to watch the rodeo here."

Violence has long wracked Tijuana, about 60 miles north of here, fueled by
the thriving drug trade controlled by Ramon and Benjamin Arellano Felix,
the chieftains of the Tijuana drug cartel.

But Ensenada, a port town 70 miles down the Baja peninsula from Tijuana and
just a few miles from El Sauzal, always seemed to be spared. Mexican and
U.S. law enforcement officials say the Ensenada area is riddled with
corruption and infested with drug trafficking, but violence has been the
exception.

"Tijuana's the place with the drugs, the guns, the murders," said Gerardo,
who returned to his native El Sauzal last year after a six-year stint
working as a cook in Lincoln City, Ore. "There's always been some violence
here, but not like this. Things have changed a lot."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Checked-by: Pat Dolan