HEAT ON AZTECAS: CLUES TO SLAYINGS SOUGHT

EL PASO -- In one of the city's largest law enforcement operations,
teams of federal, state and local authorities on Thursday began
pressuring members of the Barrio Azteca gang for information on the
murders of three people linked to the U.S. Consulate in Juarez.

The operation is part of a huge attempt on both sides of the border to
solve the slayings, which have brought international attention and the
condemnation by President Barack Obama and Mexican President Felipe
Calderon.

"Basically, we're just shaking the tree to see what fruit comes out,"
said Special Agent James Bohn, a spokesman for the FBI in El Paso.

The FBI- and DEA-led Operation Knock Down interrogated 100 of the 700
known Barrio Azteca gang members investigators wanted to question,
officials said.

Some people were arrested because they had outstanding
warrants.

Law enforcement officers are trying to generate leads on the deaths
Saturday of Lesley A. Enriquez, 35, a U.S. citizen who worked for the
U.S. Consulate in Juarez; her husband, Arthur Redelfs, 34, a detention
officer for the El Paso County Sheriff's Office; and Jorge Alberto
Salcido Ceniceros, 37, of Juarez whose wife worked for the consulate.

The three had left a birthday party attended by other employees of the
consulate in Juarez in two cars when they were shot to death.

Lesley Enriquez Catton was the daughter of a prominent businessman,
Manuel Enriquez Savignac. Her uncle was a former Mexican tourism
secretary, according to family and Mexican news media.

The wife of Salcido Ceniceros is reportedly Hilda Antillon Jimenez,
who worked at the consulate for more than 10 years. Consulate staffers
would not confirm her name and said that for security reasons they do
not identify their employees.

"She worked in the consular section, which deals with fraud, federal
benefits, immigrant and non-immigrant visas, among other things," said
Charles Luomo-Overstreet, spokesman for the Bureau of Western
Hemisphere Affairs.

Mexican officials have said they suspect that the Aztecas gang of
Juarez might have been involved in the shootings.

The Aztecas is a brother organization to the El Paso-based Barrio
Azteca gang. Both are allied with Vicente Carrillo Fuente's Juarez
drug cartel.

The Barrio Azteca is the dominant gang in El Paso and has been
involved in murders, kidnappings, drug trafficking and the collection
of a quotas or taxes on drug dealers. The gang, started by El Pasoans
in prison, has an estimated 3,000 members.

Federal agents also seek information on Eduardo "Tablas" Ravelo, the
reputed capo, or boss, of Barrio Azteca in Juarez who last year was
placed on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list. Ravelo faces racketeering
charges and is thought to be hiding in Mexico.

Starting at 6 a.m. Thursday, more than 200 law enforcement officers --
including FBI agents, police and sheriff's deputies -- swooped down on
the last known address of alleged Barrio Azteca gang members in El
Paso.

"They're just going down the rabbit hole and seeing what's there,"
said Bohn of the FBI.

Bohn said the operation would continue. "It's going on for as long as
it takes," he said.

The operation was designed to accomplish two tasks. "This surge is an
attempt to put out the message to those guys that we're looking at
them and to communicate to the city of El Paso that we're on top of
things," Bohn said.

The operation also included U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement,
Customs and Border Protection, the Texas Department of Public Safety
and other agencies.

Special Agent Andrea Simmons, a spokeswoman for the FBI in El Paso,
said the sweep was "a major intelligence collection effort" but she
said that it did not signify that investigators weren't also following
other leads in the murders.

Simmons said that agents weren't doing searches or arrests during the
sweep but that some people with outstanding warrants were arrested.
The number of arrests was not immediately available as part of the
operation in El Paso and surrounding communities.

Simmons said most of the people were questioned on site where they
were located.

And if they didn't want to talk?

"They didn't have to. You can't force anyone to talk if they don't
want to," she said.

In one incident about 11 a.m., a team of ICE agents, El Paso County
sheriff's deputies and officers from the Las Cruces/Dona Ana County
Metro Narcotics Agency convened at Dismas Charities, a halfway house
at 7011 Alameda in South El Paso.

The team brought a drug-sniffing dog, two undercover cars and two
patrol cars with them and spent more than 90 minutes at the building.
Dismas Charities employees declined to comment on the visit.

Fernando Ramos, assistant manager of a pawnshop across the street,
said he has never had a problem with halfway house residents who cash
their checks at his business. Ramos said the city has its problems but
not to the extent that the operation implied.

"El Paso is a very quiet place," he said. "It always has been. In the
area around here, I don't see any violence."

Across the Rio Grande in Juarez, more than 4,700 people have been
murdered since 2008 due in part to a war between the Sinaloa and
Juarez drug cartels.

Federal authorities were not taking any chances during the
sweep.

At the international crossings in El Paso, Customs and Border
Protection officers have been ordered to wear body armor as a
precaution because of the situation in Juarez, agency spokesman Ron
Smith confirmed.

CBP officers have also stepped up checks of southbound traffic looking
for firearms and drug money headed to Mexico. "They are being
extremely vigilant at this time," Smith said.