3 MORE BODIES FOUND IN JUAREZ

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico -- The bodies of three men -- one a wealthy rancher
- -- were found stuffed in the trunk of a car in what police here said Friday
were drug-related killings.

Their deaths brought to seven the number of people in this border city who
have died this week in drug-related killings.

"They have the signature of a drug-related execution," Jorge Lopez Molinar,
a Chihuahua state prosecutor, said.

The bodies were found late Thursday, but Lopez said: "They appear to have
been dead about 24 hours by the time we found them."

He identified one the victims as David Daniel Ramirez Rodriguez, owner of
several ranches.

The three appeared to have been strangled, Lopez continued. They were
wrapped in dark-colored sheets, with plastic bags around their heads, and
their mouths were sealed with duct tape, he said.

They were found in the trunk of a car reported stolen in El Paso, just
across the Rio Grande from this city.

The car was in a parking lot, and police searched it after neighbors
complained about smelling something rancid coming from it.

At least 50 people have been killed in drug-related violence since July
1997 -- when Amado Carrillo Fuentes, who headed a drug cartel based here,
died in Mexico City while undergoing plastic surgery to change his appearance.

Carrillo's death touched off a struggle over who would control his empire
and battles over unpaid debts.

Police made another grisly discovery Monday when the bodies of four
businessmen from Chihuahua City were found in the trunk of another
abandoned car on the outskirts of town.

The men, all telecommunications experts, had been hired to help police here
develop a system to eavesdrop on suspected narcotics traffickers. However,
other details of their deaths were not made public.

Arturo Chavez Chavez, state attorney general, said he has asked the FBI and
the El Paso Intelligence Center, a multi-agency organization that collects
and distributes information on drug trafficking, to help solve the deaths
of the four communications experts.

Checked-by: Richard Lake