DRUG-WAR GRAVITY

Mexican Gangs Use Old Mine To Dump 55 Bodies

Investigations continue after 55 bodies were discovered in an
abandoned silver mine in southern Mexico that was apparently used as a
dumping ground for victims of drug-related violence. The bodies were
found last week at the bottom of a 100-metre-deep airshaft near the
entrance to the San Francisco Cuadro near Taxco in Guerrero state,
after local officials received a tipoff. Initially, it was thought to
contain about 25 bodies.

"By Saturday night, the total number of bodies recovered from the
airshaft was 55, so that concludes our work," said Albertico Guinto
Sierra, a spokesman for the local government.

It was one of the biggest mass graves ever unearthed in Mexico, he
said. Investigators had to rappel down the shaft to locate the bodies.

About 15 people have been arrested in the case so far.

Bordering the Pacific Ocean, Guerrero is one of the Mexican states
most affected by violence among drug-trafficking gangs that, according
to the government, has left more than 22,700 people dead throughout
Mexico in the past three years.

Taxco, the city literally built on silver, is popular with tourists
who visit to admire its colonial-era buildings and buy jewellery made
from its most famous product. The area is riddled with mines, many of
them abandoned after the ore was exhausted or became too difficult to
extract.

Officials said only four bodies have been positively identified so
far, one of whom Mexican newspapers have reported was a prison warden
in nearby Iguala.

Several of the bodies were blindfolded and/or had their hands bound.
This strengthens suspicions the San Francisco Cuadro mine was used by
drug gangs to dump the bodies of their victims.

In addition, there were reports three of the bodies were mummified and
two were only skeletons.

Investigators said most of the bodies were likely thrown down the
airshaft one to six months ago, and that it would take three or four
weeks to identify most of the victims.

More than 50 families from around the country have turned up in
Guerrero in the past week to find out if their missing relatives are
among the bodies found in the airshaft.

Mr. Guinto said police were searching for more bodies in 10 wells
around the mine, after locals reported a strong stench in the
surroundings.

Forty bodies have been deposited at the city morgue in the Guerrero
capital Chilpancingo, filling it to capacity. The rest of the human
remains were taken to facilities in nearby cities.

Drug-related violence continued unabated in Mexico with six headless
bodies found on Sunday night, "in a half-hour period," in different
parts of the city of Gomez Palacio in northern Durango state.