Cartel Hit Men Blamed For Latest Juarez Slayings
Authorities suspect members of a gang of hit men allied with the Juarez drug cartel separately ambushed two cars carrying families with ties to the U.S. consulate in this violent border city, killing an American couple and a Mexican man.
Mexican authorities were investigating the murders of two American citizens and a Mexican man who were ambushed in two separate incidents Saturday in the border city of Juarez after attending a party thrown by a U.S. consulate employee.
"We are assisting [Mexican police] along with the DEA, ICE, the ATF, as well as the local sheriff's department," said FBI spokeswoman Andrea Simmons. Simmons said a "handful" of people who attended the party live on the U.S. side of the border.
U.S. law enforcement in El Paso, Texas, scrambled Monday to help interview witnesses and run ballistics tests on ammunition from the two murder scenes.
Authorities suspect that hit men from the Juarez Cartel were responsible for the killings in a city already famous as one of the world's most violent. According to Juarez-based El Diario newspaper, 50 people were killed there over the weekend.
Two of the dead were American consular employee Lesley A. Enriquez, 35, and her husband, Arthur H. Redelfs. Redelfs, 34, was a detention officer at the El Paso County Jail.
Ten minutes before that ambush, police in another part of the city found the body of the husband of a Mexican employee of the consulate.
Jorge Alberto Salcido Ceniceros, 37, a Mexican citizen, was shot to death in his car, while his two children, ages 4 and 7, were wounded, according to the state prosecutors office. The children were hospitalized.
Mexican President Felibe Calderon promised to work swiftly to find the killers, while U.S. President Obama expressed outrage at the deaths.
Meanwhile, the U.S. State Department authorized government employees in six Mexican cities to send their families out of the area. The State Department also advised Americans to delay unnecessary travel to parts of Mexico.
From NPR staff and wire reports Copyright 2010 National Public Radio. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.
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