Identifying 20 Bodies Found in Narcofosa.

Scores of people gathered at the office of the attorney general in the northern zone to possibly identify missing relatives.

Attorney General is asking help in identifying 20 bodies found in narcofosa (narco grave).

The Victim Support Unit of Crime of the Office of State Attorney General, in the Northern Zone, release the following information:

They are requesting for any person to come forward that may have missing family throughout the year of 2010 in the municipalities of Ascension, Casas Grandes and Ciudad Juárez, and think that they may know the identities of the remains exhumed from clandestine graves located near the ranch called "El Capricho", in the town of Puerto Palomas, Chihuahua.

People if interest can come starting on December 2, 2010, at the Directorate of Forensic Services and Forensic Science (SEMEFO), located on Cedar Avenue and Fort Valley of Solitude, in Colonia Morelos II in Ciudad Juarez, in order to attempt to identify any victim and must bring the following:

1. For each body, they need at least 2 or 3 immediate family members, preferably parents, children, siblings or grandparents, to conduct genetic tests for comparison.

2. Knowledge of information related to the victim's medical history.

a. X-rays of fractures (if they have them).

b. Dental examinations or x-rays (if they have them).

3. Pictures of victim especially if smiling.

Information can be obtained by dialing the telephone number 6293300 ext 50711.

Missing Deming Men Reported Among Bodies Found Near Palomas
Mother of one man reported missing in October refuses to believe it's her son.

Two Deming men reported missing in October were among the 20 victims unearthed in mass graves on the outskirts of Palomas, Mexico, but the mother of one of the men refuses to believe her son is one of the victims, the El Paso Times reported.

Mexican authorities found the New Mexico driver's license and U.S. passport card of Lorenzo Renteria, 27, buried in or near one of the 11 four-foot-deep graves unearthed on Sunday, and authorities initially reported they'd found a woman's ID but later confirmed it belonged to Renteria, the Times said.

The other Deming man, who also was reported missing by his family in October, was identified as Camerino F. Corral, 31, officials with the Luna County Sheriff's Office said.

Renteria's mother, Esther Renteria, said she went to the morgue in Juarez on Monday to see whether she could identify her son, but she said Mexican authorities have the wrong man, the Times said.

"I don't think it was my son. First of all, this body they showed me looked very different," Esther Renteria said. "A mother can tell when it is not her son. Only if the DNA tests positive will I accept it. Right now, to me, my son is alive."

Esther Renteria said she believes it's possible someone took her son's driver's license and U.S. passport card and buried it with the bodies, the paper reported.

She said the last time she heard from her son, he was headed for Ascension, also in the state of Chihuahua, to see his wife, but she got a call from him in Palomas saying he had been stopped by unnamed persons, the Times said.

Medical examiners have concluded that 17 of the bodies discovered on Sunday were men and the rest were women, but most of the bodies have not been officially identified, according to the Times.

The Mexican army learned of the graves after they arrested five gunmen Saturday in Palomas and seized about 350 pounds of marijuana, 227 bullets of various calibers, a silencer, two gun magazines and five vehicles, the paper reported.




20 Bodies Found at Ranch in Palomas,  Mexico.

Investigators found the bodies of at least 20 people in 11 graves at a ranch in Palomas, a Mexican town across the border from Columbus, New Mexico, the Chihuahua state Attorney General’s Office said.

The bodies, believed to have been buried between eight and 12 months ago, are those of 17 men and a woman, the AG’s office said.

“The finding was made after the arrest last Friday of five people who had more than 176 kilos of marijuana, a fragmentation grenade and other arms. We learned about the bodies in the course of the investigation,” AG’s office spokesman Carlos Gonzalez told Efe.

The suspects were identified as Marcos Nuñez Tabizon, 31, Leomar Armando Delgado Lomeli, 21, Carlos Raymundo Hernandez Macias, 21, Luis Sanchez Calderon, 27, and Jorge Zazumbo Olivo, 41.

Investigators began digging Saturday and finished their work on Monday at the El Capricho ranch, located eight kilometers (4.9 miles) south of Palomas, which is in Chihuahua state, officials said.

The cause of death has not been determined, crime scene investigators said, adding that the bodies were taken to the coroner’s office for autopsies.

Army troops arrested the five suspects after receiving an anonymous tip that several men were loading drugs into vehicles.

Chihuahua, Mexico’s most violent state, is home to Ciudad Juarez, the country’s murder capital.

More than 2,700 homicides have been reported in Juarez so far this year and roughly 8,000 people have been slain in the border city since the beginning of 2008.

The Juarez and Sinaloa cartels, backed by hitmen from local street gangs, have been fighting for control of Juarez, located across the border from El Paso, Texas.

The remains of a man who had been quartered, meanwhile, were found on a road in Samalayuca, a town about 100 kilometers (62 miles) south of Ciudad Juarez, the AG’s office said.

Residents found a leg at the intersection of Mariano Jimenez and Crecencio Amador streets and later spotted another extremity several blocks away.

The rest of the body was found wrapped in a blanket about 30 meters (98 feet) from the railroad tracks, officials said.