PAIR CONVICTED OF DRUG TRAFFICKING IN MEXICO

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico-Two Americans detained last year by soldiers who
said they found two marijuana-filled suitcases in their truck were
found guilty of drug trafficking by a Mexican court.

Shohn Huckabee, 23 years old, and Carlos Quijas, 36, were sentenced to
five years in prison by a judge here Wednesday. The men said Thursday
that they will appeal the verdict.

"We aren't guilty," Mr. Huckabee said in an interview at a Ciudad
Juarez jail Thursday. "The judge didn't take into account the evidence
that was in our favor."

Soldiers testified at the trial that they found two suitcases
containing more than 100 pounds of marijuana in the men's pickup truck
last December. Soldiers detained the men near the bridge that links
Ciudad Juarez with El Paso, Texas.

Mr. Huckabee and Mr. Quijas allege the soldiers planted the drugs in
the truck they were driving.

The pair also allege they were beaten, given electric shocks and
threatened with death during an interrogation at a military base
before they were handed over to civilian authorities.

In a written statement in June in answer to questions by The Wall
Street Journal, the Mexican military denied that soldiers had planted
any evidence or tortured the men and said the two were taken to a
military compound but questioned there only briefly.

Three witnesses at the trial testified they had seen soldiers plant
the marijuana-filled suitcases in the Americans' vehicle.

One of those witnesses later was shot dead in front of his home. The
two others appear to have fled Ciudad Juarez and could not be located
to comment.

The government human rights office of Chihuahua, the state where
Ciudad Juarez is located, said it is investigating the Americans'
torture allegations. An official there said the office is
investigating more than 60 other incidents in which the military is
believed to have planted evidence later used in a trial.

U.S. officials have also become involved. The U.S. consulate in Ciudad
Juarez says it sent an official in June to meet with the judge
handling the case, in what consular officials said was a highly
unusual move.

"We will continue to monitor the developments in the case," a
spokeswoman for the consulate said Thursday.

Mexican diplomats stationed at the country's consulate in El Paso met
with Mr. Huckabee and Mr. Quijas on Thursday morning and asked the men
about their torture allegations.

Mexican consular officials wouldn't normally be involved in the case
of Americans accused of crimes in Mexico. The diplomats were ordered
to visit by the Mexican ambassador to Washington, they said.

Since 2006, the Mexican military has spearheaded Mexican President
Felipe Calderon's war against the country's powerful drug cartels.

In 2007, the U.S. agreed to provide Mexico with $1.3 billion to fight
drug traffickers, including more than $420 million in funding for the
Mexican military.

U.S. lawmakers have threatened to withhold 15% of that money if there
is evidence of human-rights violations or other problems.

A decision is expected soon on whether Mexico is meeting its
requirements.

On Thursday, the parents of both men said they had begun the appeals
process.

"We registered an appeal," said Kevin Huckabee, Shohn Huckabee's
father.

But he said that after the trial court's guilty verdict, he wasn't
optimistic. "I think it's already given what the verdict is going to
be" in the appeals court, he said.

In the Mexican judicial system, trials begin with a strong presumption
of guilt against the accused. Some legal academics estimate that 8 out
of 10 cases end in a guilty verdict.

In 2008, Mexico approved changes aimed at strengthening defendants'
positions in trials.