US Consulate Victims in Mexico 'Targeted,' FBI Says

WASHINGTON (March 15) -- Three people with ties to the U.S. Consulate slain in the violent Mexican town of Ciudad Juarez on Saturday were not victims of a drive-by shooting as first reported, the FBI said today.

"They were certainly targeted," special agent Andrea Simmons, an FBI spokeswoman for the El Paso office, which borders the Mexican town, told AOL News. "They weren't randomly picked. But at this point there's no indication that the victims were targeted due to their employment with the consulate."

Simmons' remarks came hours after the Chihuahua state attorney general announced that the Aztecas street gang and the drug organization La Linea may have had a hand in the shootings, according to the El Paso Times.

La Linea is part of the ever-powerful Juarez drug cartel. The Aztecas gang is also aligned with that cartel and has been known to act as deadly enforcers and peddle street drugs, authorities said.

The victims have been identified as Lesley A. Enriquez, who worked for the consulate and was four months pregnant; her husband, Arthur H. Redelfs, a detention officer for the El Paso County Sheriff's Office; and Jorge Alberto Salcido Ceniceros, whose wife also worked for the consulate.

Meanwhile, dozens of U.S. agents from the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the State Department and several other federal agencies continued Monday to follow up on leads on both sides of the border, the FBI's Simmons said.

She said officials from the various agencies have been meeting regularly at the El Paso Federal Justice Center to discuss the case. Ciudad Juarez, known as one of the world's deadliest cities, borders El Paso and has been a central battle ground for drug cartels trying to establish turf.

So far, the investigation has confirmed that the victims attended a birthday party for a child of a consulate employee and were shot after they left in the afternoon, Simmons said.

She also said Enriquez and Redelfs were in one car with their 8-month-old girl when they were fatally shot. The child was not harmed. Ceniceros, the third victim, was killed in another car.

On Sunday, U.S. officials conveyed outrage over the murders.

"The president is deeply saddened and outraged by the news of the brutal murders of three people associated with the United States Consulate General in Ciudad Juarez," National Security Council spokesman Mike Hammer said in a statement Sunday.

And Secretary of State Hillary Clinton issued a statement Sunday as well, vowing to work with authorities in Mexico "to ensure that the perpetrators of these horrendous acts are brought to justice."

"These appalling assaults on members of our own State Department family are, sadly, part of a growing tragedy besetting many communities in Mexico," she said. "They underscore the imperative of our continued commitment to work closely with the government of President Calderón to cripple the influence of trafficking organizations at work in Mexico."

Killings have become commonplace in Ciudad Juarez. In one of the more gruesome incidents, gunmen killed more than 13 high school and college students at a party in late January.