Pubdate: Tue, 07 Dec 1999 Source: Reuters Copyright: 1999 Reuters Limited. TWO FBI INFORMANTS AMONG MEXICO DRUG DEAD-REPORT MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - The bodies of two Mexicans who worked as FBI informants were among eight dead found during excavations of border sites where drug gangs allegedly buried murder victims, newspapers reported on Tuesday. "The scientific tests done on the two bodies made it possible to identify them as two individuals who collaborated as FBI informants in 1994 and 1995 in several operations that helped in the seizure of 18.5 tons of cocaine in Mexican territory," Reforma newspaper said, quoting a "source close to the investigation." Hundreds of Mexican police and soldiers and 65 FBI agents have been digging at four sites near the border city of Ciudad Juarez since early last week. A jailed former Mexican police officer, who moonlighted as a hit man for the Juarez cocaine trafficking cartel, led investigators to the mob burial grounds along the border, saying he had participated in 80 killings. A group that represents families of missing people in Ciudad Juarez and in El Paso, Texas, just across the border, said dozens of people have disappeared since the mid-'90s, possibly victims of the region's rampant drug violence. Many relatives of the missing hope the investigation will yield information about their loved ones. Investigators unearthed two bodies on Monday, on a ranch called Santa Rosalia, about 40 miles outside of Ciudad Juarez. Last week the digs yielded six bodies, with tape binding their mouths and noses, at another location, the La Campana ranch also outside Juarez. Reforma newspapers said the two informants whose bodies had been identified worked under the aliases "El Rojo" (Red) and "Marci." The source cited by Reforma said the two were killed in early 1995 after the seizure of a large cocaine shipment discovered in an airplane that came from South America. Another leading Mexican daily, El Universal, cited unofficial sources who said the bodies had been identified as FBI informants. - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D