Cartels Suspected In Mexico Killings

33 Bodies Found At Gang Sanctuary; 7 Die at Law Office

By Manuel Roig-Franzia
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, March 15, 2008; A08

MEXICO CITY, March 14 -- Mexican authorities announced Friday that a total of 33 bodies had been found in graves at a drug cartel safe house and that seven people were killed in a law office that has represented drug traffickers.

The law office shooting took place Thursday in Guadalajara, a prosperous industrial city in western Mexico that has experienced far less drug violence than many other parts of the country, authorities said. The victims appeared to be attorneys as well as low-level assistants, and some were found tied up and shot execution-style, a common technique of cartel hit men, authorities said.

The law firm, Rangel Garcia & Associates, has represented Joaquin "Chapo" Guzman, the head of the Sinaloa cartel and widely considered Mexico's most powerful drug lord, according to a report in the Reforma newspaper. Guzman's cartel has attempted to expand across Mexico and is battling rivals in half a dozen states. The war among the cartels has left more than 5,000 people dead since January 2006.

News of the Guadalajara killings was quickly subsumed by word that 24 additional bodies were found at a house linked to the Juarez cartel in Ciudad Juarez, a violence-torn border city. Work crews have been digging behind the house since March 1, when nine bodies were found.

The Juarez cartel is reportedly trying to stop its Sinaloa rivals from seizing its smuggling routes.

There was immediate speculation that the discovery might be linked to the deaths of 400 women in Ciudad Juarez over the past 14 years, a development that has drawn international attention. But the attorney general's office said in a statement that only three of the victims were women.

Investigators said that the corpses were found in 14 graves and that the deaths were probably connected to drug gang violence. The bodies had been buried for about five years, the statement said, adding that an anonymous tip led to the site.