Slayings in Juárez, drug seizures in U.S. persist
By Daniel Borunda / El Paso Times
Article Launched: 05/15/2008 12:00:00 AM MDT


A man was killed and another wounded in a shooting Wednesday afternoon at a shopping center parking lot in Juárez's ProNaF tourist zone.
Police said one of the victims was a parquero, or parking-lot attendant, wounded while washing a car at the Plaza de las Americas center. Names were not immediately available.

Juárez has been rocked by nearly 300 homicides this year, including the fatal shootings of two men late Tuesday night in the Club 16 bar in downtown, and a man shot to death in a car Wednesday morning. Since Monday, at least 14 people have been slain.

Many of the deaths are believed to be part of a war among drug traffickers that has some Juárez officials asking the Mexican army or federal police to take control of the city's beleaguered police force.

Despite the violence, U.S. authorities said this week, the flow of illegal drugs across the border did not appear to have been affected.

"It (drug smuggling) fluctuates. Things haven't slowed down, that's for sure," said Roger Maier, spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which tries to catch contraband at the international ports into El Paso.

Customs and Border Protection officers seized an average of about 4,000 pounds of marijuana a week last year in El Paso, Maier said. The agency seized an average of 3,852 pounds a week in the past six weeks, according to a compilation of tallies released each week.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Leticia Zamarripa and Matthew Taylor,
spokesman for the Drug Enforcement Administration, said their agencies had not seen a decrease in drug cases in El Paso.
Daniel Borunda may be reached at dborunda@elpasotimes.com;

546-6102.

Death toll

Homicides on Tuesday and Wednesday in Juárez. At least 14 people have been killed since Monday.

Tuesday


2 p.m.: Alberto Martinez Servin, 24, shot in truck on Tomas Fernandez Boulevard.

9:30 p.m.: Jesus Gabriel Cazares, 24, shot in car in Colonia Alamos de San Lorenzo.

9:45 p.m.: Luis Angel Campos Ibarra, 25, died at medical clinic after hit by gunfire at a park.

11:42 p.m.: Juan Carlos Salas Montes, 23, and Ricardo Omar Esparza Sanchez, 22, shot inside Club 16 bar.
Wednesday


10:24 a.m.: Fidel Galvan Garcia, 21, found dead in a car of a gunshot to the neck.

4:30 p.m.: One man shot and killed in the parking lot of the Plaza de las Americas.
Source: Chihuahua state police and Juárez police. Figures as of 7:30 p.m. Wednesday.


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