Pubdate: Tue, 07 Sep 2010
Source: El Paso Times (TX)
Copyright: 2010 El Paso Times
Contact: http://www.elpasotimes.com/townhall/ci_14227323
Website: http://www.elpasotimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/829
Author: Daniel Borunda

WOMEN TARGETED IN LATEST JUAREZ KILLINGS

Four women were killed in three incidents as the violence continued
Monday in Juarez.

The first case was about 3 a.m. when the body of an unidentified woman
was found wrapped in a bedcover in an industrial park, Chihuahua state
police said. There were no visible injuries. The cause of death had
not been determined, but the case was labeled a homicide.

Just before 6 a.m., two women were shot to death at the intersection
of 15 de Septiembre and Monte de las Cruces streets in west Juarez,
state police said.

Police said the women had not been identified but appeared to be in
their 20s. Five 9 mm bullet casings were found at the scene.

At noon, a man was fatally shot in a Toyota Tundra, and a woman was
shot multiple times and killed inside a home near the Bridge of the
Americas. The pair had not been identified. The man was in his 30s and
the woman was about 25 years old.

A possible motive for the shootings had not been disclosed, but women
have increasingly become players in the Juarez drug war.

For years, women have been part of drug trafficking organizations
serving as drug couriers, money launderers and even running drug
cells. But as the drug war has raged, women are also taking up arms
and serving as killers in the violent struggle for turf.

A suspected hit man told Mexican authorities recently that the Juarez
drug cartel is recruiting young, beautiful women to be assassins as a
way to trick rivals.

The women's deaths Monday were part of seven homicides as of early
evening. The other deaths were:

About 10:30 a.m., Raul Calderon Castro, 35, was shot to death by
gunmen who fired 33 rounds outside a home in the 5700 block of Linaza
Street. A man was also wounded and taken to a hospital.

About 4:30 p.m., an unidentified man in his 20s was shot and killed in
colonia Obrera south of downtown Juarez.

A spokesman for the Chihuahua state attorney general's office said
Sunday ended with a total of six homicides, raising the weekend death
toll to 23. About 2,000 people have been slain in the Juarez area this
year in a war between the Juarez and Sinaloa drug cartels that has
continued since 2008.
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