Pubdate: Fri, 17 Dec 1999 Source: Seattle-Times (WA) Copyright: 1999 The Seattle Times Company Contact: http://www.seattletimes.com/ Author: The Associated Press Note: Information from Seattle Times news services is included in this report SUSPECTED DRUG RANCH YIELDS NINTH BODY MEXICO CITY - Searchers have uncovered the remains of a ninth body buried at ranches they believed were used by a major drug gang near the U.S.-Mexico border, officials said yesterday. The discovery reported by the Mexican Attorney General's Office was the first in more than a week at the four ranches being searched by Mexican troops and police and the FBI. According to a news release issued in Mexico City, the skeletal remains were found buried at Site No. 3 - one of four ranches near the border city of Ciudad Juarez, where the searches are taking place. On Tuesday, the Attorney General's Office said they have found more than 1,000 gallons of chemicals used in processing cocaine, as well as drug-making equipment and weapons, at the same ranch. Mexican investigators also found cocaine grinders, metal presses for compressing the drug, a drying system with reflectors, other drug-handling tools and cartridges for Kalashnikov rifles. Both American and Mexican officials said the killings are believed to be connected to the powerful Juarez drug cartel, one of Mexico's largest cocaine-smuggling operations until the 1997 death of its leader, Amado Carrillo Fuentes. A U.S. government informant had said that as many as 100 bodies might be found. Agents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, left on the sidelines in this case by the FBI, privately doubt the existence of burial sites with high concentrations of drug-war victims. "I wonder if people moved too quickly," said one Texas-based official. In a meeting with reporters just days after the digging began, Mexican prosecutors said they were working with a list of 100 people - including up to 22 American citizens - reported missing between 1994 and 1997. Many of the missing were last seen in Mexican police custody, or being hustled away by men wearing the black uniforms of federal police. None of those disappearances has been solved, despite a task force and four special prosecutors assigned to the case by Mexican officials. - --- MAP posted-by: allan wilkinson