Thread: Body found in Mexico with agents' cards

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/stor ... 15,00.html

A bloody war that will only get worse...

Body Found in Mexico With Agents' Cards

Friday December 15, 2006 4:31 AM


By ALICIA A. CALDWELL

Associated Press Writer

EL PASO, Texas (AP) - Business cards of two U.S. law enforcement officials were found taped to the head of a man whose bloody body was dumped in a Mexican park last month, federal officials said Thursday.

Officials with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Drug Enforcement Administration said the agencies were notified about the discovery but do not have any role in investigating the killing.

Mexican authorities said the unidentified victim's body was left in a popular park in Ciudad Juarez, across the Rio Grande, on Nov. 23. He was found with a finger stuffed in his mouth - a traditional punishment drug traffickers inflict on informers.

Photographs of the victim published in Thursday's edition of the Spanish-language newspaper El Diario de El Paso show the business cards of Raul M. Bencomo, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent, and what is believed to be DEA agent whose name is illegible in the photo. Bencomo oversaw a drug informant who led authorities to the bodies of about a dozen men buried in the yard of a Juarez house in 2004.

``It would be inappropriate for ICE to comment out of respect for the integrity of the Mexican investigation,'' ICE spokesman Carl Rusnok said in a written statement. ``We have a strong relationship with our law enforcement counterparts and will assist if requested.''

It was unclear what, if any, connection the killing has to Bencomo. His bloodied U.S. Department of Treasury-embossed card appears to be several years old. Treasury officials have not overseen immigration agents since ICE was formed under the Department of Homeland Security in 2003.

A telephone message left for Mary Stillinger, an El Paso lawyer for Bencomo, was not returned Thursday.

Chihuahua Attorney General Patricia Gonzalez said her office has asked U.S. authorities in El Paso for help identifying the body.

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Is Bencomo missing?

Mexican authorities said the unidentified victim's body was left in a popular park in Ciudad Juarez, across the Rio Grande, on Nov. 23.

What took so long to report this? I'm sure the bodies have been IDed by now. What's he cover-up? Ooops, I ment hold-up.

Wonder what's going to be done about these murders if they turn out to be US law officers? Are they going to be brought up on some trumped up charges and prosecuted by Gonzales post mortem?

Dixie