Posted on 11/05/2010 7:08:01 AM PDT by Responsibility2nd
MEXICO CITY — Yet another macabre mystery of Mexico's drug war — the presumed slaughter of 20 tourists in Acapulco — apparently has been solved by thugs who detained the killers, posted their confessions on the Internet, then murdered them and led police to the crime scene.
Police were searching for two more bodies Thursday in a coconut grove near the Pacific Coast resort, where they had pulled 18 bodies from a shallow grave Wednesday. Though officials are waiting for DNA evidence or identification by relatives today, those in the grave are believed to be the tourists from neighboring Michoacán state who were abducted in Acapulco five weeks ago.
The men had vanished shortly after arriving in Acapulco — which in recent times has become known as much for brutality as beaches — for what family members said was an annual party weekend.
Police were led to the grave site Wednesday by an anonymous call alerting them to the bodies of two murdered men lying side by side in the brush not far from the Acapulco airport. A placard left with the bodies advised authorities that “those they killed are buried here.”
A video posted earlier Wednesday on YouTube showed an efficiently conducted interrogation of the two men, one of whom confessed to helping snatch and kill 20 tourists at the behest of Edgar “La Barbie” Valdez, a Texas-born narcotics trafficker. Until his arrest near Mexico City in late August, La Barbie was considered one of the Mexican underworld's more vicious leaders.
The person conducting the interrogation is neither identified nor visible.
The tourists, who had arrived in Acapulco in four vehicles bearing Michoacán plates, apparently were believed to be members of La Familia, Michoacán's homegrown mafia that has distinguished itself with savagery. They were seized near the beach city's premier hotels by armed men traveling in SUVs without license plates, witnesses said.
Their families have insisted the abducted men were not gangsters.
“Check out their identities,” the sobbing wife of one of the men implored the kidnappers in a televised interview days after the abduction. “These are working people.”
No ransom demand was ever received for the men, and they haven't been heard from again.
Their alleged killers said in the video confession the tourists were targeted in revenge for La Familia's winning control of a small city from La Barbie's narcotics gang.
“This was all done because of La Familia,” one of the men said in the video, which appeared to be filmed in the stairway of a house. “Because they took control of Altamirano.”
Gangsters in recent months have used such Internet-broadcast confessions to discredit police and other officials or accuse rivals of atrocities. In several cases, federal authorities have made arrests based on the video-taped confessions.
In another video posted on YouTube two weeks ago, a man identified as an Acapulco city policeman also confessed to taking part in the abduction.
Questioned police-style, with rifles pointed at his head, the man said he also worked for La Barbie. He accused senior members of the local and state police forces of directing the crime.
A bustling port and a resort still favored by many Mexicans, Acapulco has been a major battlefield in the four years of heightened gangland warfare that has racked Mexico. Gangsters from the so-called Pacific Cartel, including La Barbie, have fought criminal rivals and Mexican security forces for control of the city.
Michoacán officials say they have found no connection between the missing men and La Familia.
There’s safer places to go than Mexico, like Bahgdad.
drugs are cool don’t you know....they don’t “hurt” anybody right?
Roger, that.
Think we should outlaw alcohol again? Why not? It worked so well the first time.
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