US INQUIRY GOES ON IN CONSULATE-LINKED DEATHS

Investigators have not solved the murders of three people with ties to
the U.S. Consulate in Juarez, officials said Wednesday.

"We are still investigating the case," FBI Special Agent Andrea
Simmons said. She added that Mexican authorities are in charge of the
investigation in Mexico.

U.S. Consulate officials said the investigation continues. "We don't
know the motive at this stage," according to officials.

Mexico has the primary jurisdiction because the deaths occurred in
that country.

Chihuahua state attorney general officials, who investigate and
prosecute most murders in their state, said they had nothing new to
report on the investigation since they arrested several suspects last
month.

On March 13, two groups of armed men shot and killed Arthur Redelfs, a
detention officer for the El Paso County Sheriff's Office; his
pregnant wife, Lesley Enriquez Redelfs, who worked at the consulate;
and Jorge Salcido Ceniceros, the husband of Hilda Jimenez, who also
worked at the consulate.

Mexican officials said Aztecas gang members were responsible for the
attacks. Later, after they arrested several alleged gang members, the
Mexican officials said one of the suspects claimed the gang was
ordered to kill Arthur Redelfs because he mistreated gang members at
the jail in El Paso.

Other sources with knowledge about the investigation also have offered
different theories for the murders:

- - Mistaking Salcido for a rival gang member.

- - A failed attempt to bring drugs into the El Paso County
Jail.

- - Enriquez's refusal to provide a drug capo with authorization for a
document.

Although neither the U.S. Consulate or FBI would comment on motives
for the attacks, both have tended to dismiss any connection between
the murders and the U.S. Consulate.

"At this point, no information indicates the victims were directly
targeted due to their employment at the U.S. Consulate," U.S. consular
officials said.

Simmons, the FBI spokeswoman, said, "We continue to say that we have
no information at this time that leads us to believe that the three
people were targeted because of their citizenship or their jobs."

Recently, the website www.narconews.com published a story on one of
the latest theories. The story cited unnamed law officers who alleged
that a Sinaloa cartel capo had ordered the hit against Enriquez
because she would not sign a document with missing paperwork. The
story further alleged that the Sinaloa capo used Aztecas and corrupt
Mexican police to help carry out the attacks.

Enriquez worked in the consulate's American Citizens Services section,
which provides a wide variety of services.

Narco News is an online site that publishes stories about drug
trafficking in North and South America. Law enforcement officers are
regular readers.

Phil Jordan, former director of the DEA's El Paso Intelligence Center,
said he received similar information about Enriquez through his
network of law enforcement sources. Jordan is a retired DEA official,
law enforcement consultant and private investigator.

Law enforcement officials had doubts about the report.

"My sources indicated that the Narco News story is pretty much on
track, except I doubt that the Sinaloa cartel ordered the hit," Jordan
said. "This case has more of the marks of the Carrillo Fuentes cartel."

Authorities on both sides of the border have linked the Barrio Aztecas
gang in El Paso and the Aztecas gang in Juarez to the Carrillo Fuentes
cartel, a rival of the Sinaloa organization led by Joaquin "Chapo"
Guzman Loera.

"Chapo Guzman is too high up to be dealing with issues at this level,"
Jordan said. "The theory that the consulate worker was killed for
refusing to provide someone in organized crime with a permit or visa
of some sort, as I was told, is far more plausible than the propaganda
that (Arthur Redelfs) was the target because he supposedly mistreated
Aztecas gang members."

Jordan said the case can be solved if the FBI is given full access to
the evidence in Mexico.

"But I doubt that will happen," he said.