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Police find 7 bodies in Mexican border city

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-03-15 10:52

CIUDAD JUAREZ– Police acting on a tip found seven bodies partially buried in the desert on the outskirts of the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez, an official said Saturday.

Police and forensic officers work at the site where bodies were found in the outskirts of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Saturday, March 14, 2009. [Agencies]

Investigators are searching the desert site south of the city to see whether there are any more bodies.

An official with the state prosecutor's office who declined to be named in line with department policy says a police officer's badge was found at the site. Authorities were working to identify the bodies.

Ciudad Juarez, a city of 1.3 million people across the border from El Paso, Texas, has been hit by a wave of drug-fueled violence, prompting federal authorities to dispatch thousands of soldiers.

State security official Enrique Torres Valadez said that 1,500 more troops are expected to arrive Saturday, in addition to 2,150 who arrived Friday.

Farther east, in the border city of Reynosa, federal police announced Saturday that they had arrested a man who allegedly led operations there for the feared Zetas, a group of hit men for the Gulf drug cartel.

Sergio Pena Mendoza, 39, is also suspected of participating in an unsuccessful plot to free an imprisoned Zetas leader from jail in neighboring Guatemala, authorities told a news conference in Mexico City.

Pena Mendoza was arrested after he tried to flee a police patrol in a stolen pickup truck with Texas plates. Police found an assault rifle in the truck and said Pena Mendoza is suspected of killing a police official and a businessman in southern Mexico.

Interim Federal Police Commissioner Rodrigo Esparza said Pena Mendoza achieved the same rank in the Zetas - and was a possible replacement for - Jaime Gonzalez Duran, also known as "The Hummer," a founding member of the gang who was arrested in Reynosa in November.

Questioned by reporters as he was led through police installations in Mexico City, Pena Mendoza denied the accusations.

Also Saturday, a male suspect threw a hand grenade at police officers in the western city of Guadalajara, according to a statement from the Jalisco state prosecutor's office. The statement said the officers were not seriously injured, but gave no further details, including how many were hurt.

Police detained the suspect and later found 14 more grenades and 10 assault rifles in his home.