MEXICO FREED 5 IN TAPED KILLING

3 Federal Agents Still In Jail In Drug Case; Others Released 3 Months Ago

MEXICO CITY - Five federal agents suspected of making a chilling
"narco-video" that shows presumed drug hit men being interrogated
were freed three months ago for lack of evidence, the Mexico City
government said Friday.

The surprise disclosure came a day after the federal government's top
anti-drug prosecutor said in a widely covered announcement that eight
corrupt federal agents had been arrested on charges that they
participated in making the video.

The five released from jail are agents from Mexico's elite Federal
Investigative Agency, or AFI for its initials in Spanish. Three other
AFI agents remain in Mexico City lockups, charged with drug-related
crimes and kidnapping, the city prison agency said.

In his news conference Thursday, Assistant Attorney General Jose Luis
Santiago Vasconcelos did not say that any of the agents had been
released. Neither Mr. Vasconcelos nor his spokesman could be reached
for comment late Friday.

"Of the eight people presumably involved in the 'narco-video' made
public recently, only three remain in [jail], since the rest of them
were freed by the 5th District Court after determining there was a
'lack of elements for prosecution,' " the prison agency said in a news release.

The video, made public by The Dallas Morning News, shows four men
sitting bruised, bloody and bound before a curtain of black garbage bags.

Prodded by an unseen interrogator, they describe themselves as hit
men for the Gulf cartel, detailing how they kidnapped, tortured and
killed their enemies.

Zeta Suspects

Law enforcement investigators believe the four men were members of
the Zeta drug gang, enforcers for the Nuevo Laredo-based Gulf cartel,
and that the agents were working for the rival Sinaloa cartel. On the
video, one of the men is shot in the head, and authorities believe
all were eventually killed.

Mr. Vasconcelos said the taped killing probably was carried out as
part of a dispute between the rival drug gangs. He said Thursday that
Mexican authorities had received a copy of the disc earlier and that
eight AFI agents and two civilians were arrested in connection with
the DVD; 10 suspects were at large, he said.

The Mexico City prison agency said Friday that while the eight AFI
agents entered city lockups on Aug. 31 and Sept. 1 on charges of
kidnapping and organized crime, five were released on Sept. 5.

The Mexico City newspaper Reforma reported on its Web site Friday
afternoon that the attorney general's office was appealing the
court's decision to release the five AFI agents and hoped to have
them back in jail.

The federal government often holds suspects in Mexico City jails
while their cases move through the courts. Mexico's federal
government and the capital's government are run by rival political parties.

In interviews Tuesday and Wednesday, Mr. Vasconcelos made no mention
of charges or arrests, only that the tape was being investigated.

Alleged Corruption

On the DVD, time-stamped May 16, the four men claim to be working
with Mexican law enforcement. Two of the men say they are former
soldiers trying to recruit military colleagues and federal agents to
work for the cartel.

The men also discuss the slaying of a Nuevo Laredo radio reporter and
the planned killing of the city's police chief.