MEXICO CITY - Mexican investigators found 19 more bodies buried in the backyard of a house in Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas, increasing the tally of corpses found there to 33, officials said Thursday.
Federal agents began digging in the yard in the La Cuesta neighborhood on March 1, initially finding six dismembered bodies, Mexico's federal attorney general's office said in a statement.
The remains date back about five years and all but three apparently are males, the statement said.
The attorney general's office did not say how the victims died or who may have buried the bodies. In the initial raid, authorities found 3,740 pounds of marijuana in the house.
Ciudad Juarez has been plagued by violence as Mexico's crackdown on powerful drug cartels stokes turf wars among traffickers that have been linked to hundreds of killings in the past two years.
Cartels frequently use "safe houses" in border cities to store drugs, house gunmen and dispose of dead rivals.
In the nearby state capital Chihuahua City last month, federal agents found six bodies buried in a shallow grave at a house allegedly used by the Juarez cartel.
In January 2004, police unearthed a grave containing 12 bodies in a Juarez backyard.
Federal agents began digging in the yard in the La Cuesta neighborhood on March 1, initially finding six dismembered bodies, Mexico's federal attorney general's office said in a statement.
The remains date back about five years and all but three apparently are males, the statement said.
The attorney general's office did not say how the victims died or who may have buried the bodies. In the initial raid, authorities found 3,740 pounds of marijuana in the house.
Ciudad Juarez has been plagued by violence as Mexico's crackdown on powerful drug cartels stokes turf wars among traffickers that have been linked to hundreds of killings in the past two years.
Cartels frequently use "safe houses" in border cities to store drugs, house gunmen and dispose of dead rivals.
In the nearby state capital Chihuahua City last month, federal agents found six bodies buried in a shallow grave at a house allegedly used by the Juarez cartel.
In January 2004, police unearthed a grave containing 12 bodies in a Juarez backyard.
