Juarez, Mexico
November 30, 1999

Mexican army and government agents, backed by an FBI task force, began unearthing Monday what could be a drug-cartel killing field with the remains of as many as 100 murdered U.S. and Mexican citizens.

The Mexican Attorney General's Office (PGR) said U.S. and Mexican officials were searching sites near the city of Juarez, across the U.S.-Mexico border from El Paso, Texas.

CBS News reported that up to 100 people could be buried in two ranches near Juarez and that 200 FBI agents were involved in the probe, which appeared to be one of the largest joint U.S.-Mexico investigations in recent years.

"This investigation is aimed at clearing up a series of drug-related murders and disappearances of Mexican and U.S. citizens, apparently by members of the so-called Juarez cartel," the PGR said.

In Washington, an FBI spokesman said dozens of agents were on the scene examining "at least two possible grave sites." "It's a momentous event in light of the extent of the cooperation that we're providing and that we're working this closely with the Mexicans," said FBI spokesman Jim Davis. "We've cooperated with the Mexicans before, but this kind of takes it to a new level." A PGR spokesman had no immediate information on the number of suspected victims.

Juarez is headquarters of one of Mexico's most violent drug cartels thought to have shipped tons of Colombian cocaine across the Rio Grande into the United States. Jaime Hervella, president for the International Association of Relatives and Friends of Disappeared Persons with offices in El Paso and Juarez told Reuters the association has been searching for 196 people who have gone missing in Juarez since 1990. Eighteen of them are U.S. citizens. "We're sitting here waiting on pins and needles to find out some news," Hervella said. He said a PGR source told him "hundreds of bodies" could be found at the sites.

Hervella's group blames all the disappeared on drug violence and corrupt police. CBS reported that most missing from were from Juarez and that many had last seen in custody of Mexican police, possibly acting on order from drug gangs. KVIA-TV in El Paso, a CBS affiliate, quoting U.S. Justice Department officials, reported that U.S. and Mexican law enforcement authorities had been searching for two missing U.S. agents -- one from the FBI and one from the DEA -- and found both of them dead near a shooting range 10 miles south of Juarez. The report gave no timing on when the agents were killed or bodies found but said officials found evidence that the area was a mass grave. Also, the investigation into that incident led them to the second area 40 miles south of Juarez.

A spokesman for Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo said the excavation of the Juarez sites began Monday but had been suspended due to darkness and would resume Tuesday. CBS said the operation could take to take 30 days and is larger the recent body recovery attempts in Kosovo. The PGR described the operation as a "humanitarian action" to recover the victims' remains and said telephone hotlines were being set up to receive calls from people who feared a friend or relative may be among those buried at the Juarez sites.