U.S. arrests second suspect in border slayings
1:15 AM
Posted: Tuesday, August 22, 2006
CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico (AP) -- A Mexican man arrested in Virginia may be linked to a series of murders of women in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, investigators said Monday, a week after another suspect in the slayings was arrested in Colorado.
Jose Francisco Granados de la Paz, detained for alleged immigration violations, is suspected of involvement in killings in 2001, the Chihuahua state attorney general's office said in a statement.
The statement did not say when or exactly where Granados de la Paz was arrested or give his age or hometown in Mexico. A spokesman for the prosecutor's office in Chihuahua, which contains Juarez, declined to comment further.
Granados de la Paz is the second confirmed suspect in a two-country investigation that could net several more indictments.
Already in custody in El Paso, Texas, across the border from Juarez, is Edgar Alvarez Cruz, a Mexican construction worker arrested Aug. 15 in Denver.
Alvarez Cruz is implicated in the killings of eight women ages 15 to 21, whose remains were found in Juarez in November 2001.
Last week, U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Tony Garza called Alvarez Cruz's capture "a major break" in the slayings of more than 100 young women in Juarez between 1993 and 2003. Many of the victims were young women last seen in the city's downtown or after taking buses. Their bodies often didn't appear until months later, many of them found dumped in the desert.
Authorities' lack of progress in solving the cases prompted international outrage, as news of the killings made headlines around the world.
Authorities have arrested and prosecuted a number of suspects over the years, but family members of some Juarez victims say authorities have yet to bring the true culprits to justice.
Federal authorities intervened in 2003, promising to solve 14 rape-strangulation cases involving teenagers and women in Juarez. The federal attorney general's office recently closed those investigations, however, without getting to the bottom of what happened.
Chihuahua Attorney General Patricia Gonzalez said after Alvarez Cruz's arrest that Mexican authorities were holding a Juarez resident named Alejandro Delgado in connection with the killings. But Gonzalez refused to provide further details and later backed away from that statement, saying she didn't want to jeopardize an ongoing investigation.
Jose Francisco Granados de la Paz, detained for alleged immigration violations, is suspected of involvement in killings in 2001, the Chihuahua state attorney general's office said in a statement.
The statement did not say when or exactly where Granados de la Paz was arrested or give his age or hometown in Mexico. A spokesman for the prosecutor's office in Chihuahua, which contains Juarez, declined to comment further.
Granados de la Paz is the second confirmed suspect in a two-country investigation that could net several more indictments.
Already in custody in El Paso, Texas, across the border from Juarez, is Edgar Alvarez Cruz, a Mexican construction worker arrested Aug. 15 in Denver.
Alvarez Cruz is implicated in the killings of eight women ages 15 to 21, whose remains were found in Juarez in November 2001.
Last week, U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Tony Garza called Alvarez Cruz's capture "a major break" in the slayings of more than 100 young women in Juarez between 1993 and 2003. Many of the victims were young women last seen in the city's downtown or after taking buses. Their bodies often didn't appear until months later, many of them found dumped in the desert.
Authorities' lack of progress in solving the cases prompted international outrage, as news of the killings made headlines around the world.
Authorities have arrested and prosecuted a number of suspects over the years, but family members of some Juarez victims say authorities have yet to bring the true culprits to justice.
Federal authorities intervened in 2003, promising to solve 14 rape-strangulation cases involving teenagers and women in Juarez. The federal attorney general's office recently closed those investigations, however, without getting to the bottom of what happened.
Chihuahua Attorney General Patricia Gonzalez said after Alvarez Cruz's arrest that Mexican authorities were holding a Juarez resident named Alejandro Delgado in connection with the killings. But Gonzalez refused to provide further details and later backed away from that statement, saying she didn't want to jeopardize an ongoing investigation.
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