Cult Leader Slain In Gunbattle

   BROWNSVILLE, Texas (AP) - The ringleader of a drug smuggling cult
that killed 15 people has been slain in a gunbattle with Mexico City
police and his girlfriend has been captured, police said Saturday.

   Cameron County sheriff's Lt. George Gavito said Mexican authorities
told U.S. investigators Saturday night that cult leader Adolfo de Jesus
Constanzo, 26, was killed and that police have arrested Sara Aldrete, a
24-year-old former Texas college student described as the ``witch'' of
the cult.

   ``They have confirmed that Adolfo is dead and Sara has been
arrested,'' Gavito said.

   The two had been sought in an international manhunt and are suspected
of being the masterminds in a cult that killed 15 people in a series of
ritualistic sacrifices and drug-related slayings.

   Another man involved in the cult, Martin Quintana Rodriguez, also was
killed in the shootout at a Mexico City residence about 4:30 p.m., said
Cameron County Sheriff Alex Perez.

   Gavito said he spoke on the telephone with Ms. Aldrete, who is in
police custody in Mexico City, for about five minutes Saturday night,
but he would not divulge details of the conversation.

   Mexico City police confirmed that two people were killed during a
shootout Saturday afternoon in a supermarket and that their identity was
in question. But police would not confirm that Constanzo had been killed
in the shootout.

   The attorney general's office in Mexico's Federal District would not
immediately confirm the story.

   ``We don't know anything about it,'' Luis Gomez Saenz told The
Associated Press by telephone Saturday night.

   Constanzo, 26, and Ms. Aldrete, 24, had been charged with aggravated
kidnapping by Cameron County authorities and are believed to have
directed human sacrifices, mutilations and the boiling of brains and
other organs in rituals to bring occult protection for their
drug-smuggling ring.

   The ring and its macabre activities was discovered when authorities
unearthed 15 bodies buried west of the border city of Matamoros, Mexico,
beginning on April 11.

   Constanzo and Ms. Aldrete, missing since the first 12 bodies were
uncovered April 11, are among 11 people indicted in the United States on
a four-count drug indictment.

   Four of the five men in custody in Matamoros said the cult leaders
were Constanzo and Ms. Aldrete. The pair flew from McAllen to Mexico
City on April 11, officials have said.

   In the Mexican capital, the investigation led to searches of
residences where occult altars were found.

   AP-NY-05-07-89 0020 EDT
   (C) Copyright 1988, Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.
__________________________________________________________________________

Satanic Cult People Questioned


   MEXICO CITY (AP) - Police grilled five members of a drug-smuggling
satanic cult Monday about their role in the ritual slaying of 15 people
along the U.S. border and whether other ring members still are at large,
a police source said.

   ``The city attorney general's office is also trying to determine if
the five committed any federal crimes and if they should be tried in a
city court or a federal district court,'' he added.

   The source, at the Mexico City attorney general's office, spoke in a
telephone interview on condition of anonymity. He said the five -
including cult ``witch'' Sara Aldrete Villarreal, 24, - were under heavy
guard in Miguel Hidalgo district police station on the capital's west
side.

   They were arrested in Mexico City after a gunfight Saturday in which
cult ``godfather'' Adolfo de Jesus Constanzo ordered a cult member to
shoot him and his right-hand man as police moved in. Their hideout lay a
few blocks from the U.S. and British embassies.

   Constanzo, 26, a Cuban-born resident of Florida, and Ms. Aldrete, his
Mexican companion, were sought on both sides of the border after police
discovered bodies of cult victims buried at a ranch in Matamoros on
April 11.

   Authorities said the rituals were meant to bring occult protection to
the ring, which trafficked mostly in marijuana to the United States.

   Among those sacrified was Mark Kilroy, 21, a University of Texas
pre-med student.

   Mexican authorities said Constanzo and Ms. Aldrete, a former honor
student at Texas Southmost College, directed the human sacrifices and
other rituals.

   The other four arrested were identified as Maria del Rocio Cuevas
Guerra, 43, of Mexico City; Omar Francisco Orea, 23, a journalism
student at the National University who met Constanzo six years ago when
Constanzo invited him to take part in black magic; Alvaro de Leon
Valdez, 22, another Mexican, and Maria de Lourdes Guero Lopez, 29, whose
connection to the case was not clear.

   All five were booked on charges of homicide, criminal association,
wounding a police agent during the arrest, and property damage.

   Fausto Popoca, a spokesman for the city attorney general, said in a
telephone interview Monday they will be formally arraigned shortly.

   Officials examined the bodies of Constanzo and his right-hand man,
Martin Quintana Rodriguez, at the central city morgue Monday.

   A U.S. Embassy official later said ``That's correct'' when asked if
Constanzo's body had been positively identified.

   The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said fingerprints
were compared, ``and a variety of other things have been done to secure
positive identification.''

   Constanzo's mother, Delia Constanzo of Miami, called Sheriff Alex
Perez of Cameron County, Texas, on Sunday, asking if her son's body
could be returned to Miami. ``She wanted to know how she could get the
body back, being that he was an American citizen,'' he said.

   AP-NY-05-08-89 1753EDT
   (C) Copyright 1988, Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.
__________________________________________________________________________

Cult `Witch' Was Held Hostage?


   MEXICO CITY (AP) - A woman described as the ``witch'' of a
drug-smuggling cult accused in the ritual slayings of 15 people said
Monday that group members held her hostage after the killings were
discovered.

   ``It was like hell,'' 24-year-old Sara Aldrete Villarreal told a news
conference Monday afternoon. ``They treated me like a prisoner. I was
scared.

   ``I don't know how I got into this without knowing what it was,'' she
said.

   Ms. Aldrete, who has been called the cult's ``witch'' by suspects,
was one of five people arrested in Mexico City after a gunfight
Saturday. As police closed in, a group member shot and killed cult
``godfather'' Adolfo de Jesus Constanzo and his right-hand man on the
order of Constanzo himself, according to two of those arrested and
Mexican authorities.

   Constanzo, 26, a Cuban-born resident of Florida, and Ms. Aldrete, his
Mexican companion, were sought on both sides of the border after police
discovered bodies of cult victims buried at a ranch in Matamoros, just
across the Texas border from Brownsville, on April 11.

   A source at the Mexico City attorney general's office, speaking on
condition of anonymity, said Monday two more women had been arrested in
the case. He refused to identify them or provide any details.

   Also Monday, the attorney general's office adamantly denied
statements by U.S. law enforcement authorities, who have questioned if
Constanzo and his assistant are really dead.

   Deputy City Attorney General Abram Leopoldo Uzcanga told the news
conference, ``We have no doubt that these were the men.''

   He said both had been positively identified through fingerprints and
showed reporters official documents that he said certified the
identities. Autopsies on both bodies showed the men died from multiple
gun wounds to the head and abdomen, he said.

   Officials said they examined the bodies of Constanzo and his
right-hand man, Martin Quintana Rodriguez, at the central city morgue
Monday.

   Meanwhile, police continued to grill the five people arrested
Saturday and investigate whether other ring members still are at large.
All five were booked on charges of homicide, criminal association,
wounding a police agent during the arrest, and property damage.

   Fausto Popoca, a spokesman for the city attorney general, said in a
telephone interview Monday they will be formally arraigned shortly.

   Mexican authorities said Constanzo and Ms. Aldrete, a former honor
student at Texas Southmost College, directed the human sacrifices and
other rituals.

   They said the rituals were meant to bring occult protection to the
ring, which trafficked mostly in marijuana to the United States.

   Among those sacrified was Mark Kilroy, 21, a University of Texas
pre-med student.

   Alvaro de Leon Valdez, a 22-year-old Mexican, told a Sunday news
conference he killed Constanzo and Quintana with a burst of
submachine-gun fire in the fourth-floor apartment on Constanzo's orders.
The bodies were found slumped together inside a tiny closet.

   AP-NY-05-09-89 0000EDT
   (C) Copyright 1988, Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.
__________________________________________________________________________

Satanic Ring Member Arrested


   MEXICO CITY (AP) - Police arrested an eighth member of a satanic cult
of drug smugglers blamed for the ritual slaying of 15 people near the
U.S. border, law enforcement officials said Tuesday.

   Octavio Campos, spokesman for the Mexico City attorney general's
office, identified the suspect only as Enrique Calzada. He was picked up
by police Monday evening in Mexico City, Campos said.

   Campos said Calzada was ``the boyfriend of one of the women ring
members nicknamed `Carla.'''

   ``Carla'' is the nickname of Maria del Rocio Cuevas Guerra, 43, who
along with four other people was arrested at a Mexico City apartment
Saturday after a gun battle with police.

   Police refused to disclose the identities of two other women arrested
late Monday, saying they were being questioned and that their
depositions had not been completed.

   An official at the attorney general's office, who insisted on
anonymity, said police sought ``several more'' suspects for questioning
in connection with the satanic cult slayings at a ranch outside
Matamoros, Mexico.

   Police on Saturday also arrested Sara Aldrete Villarreal, 29, who
authorities described as the cult's ``godmother''; Omar Francisco Orea,
23, a journalism student at the National University; Dr. Maria de
Lourdes Guero Lopez, 29, a physician; and Alvaro de Leon Valdez, 22.

   The cult's ``godfather,'' Adolfo de Jesus Constanzo, and a henchman
were killed by fellow cult members on Constanzo's orders at the
fourth-floor apartment a few blocks from the U.S. and British embassies.

   The eight suspects being held have been booked on charges of
homicide, criminal association, wounding a police agent during the
arrest, and property damage. Campos said their arraingment was to take
place late Tuesday and had been delayed because of paperwork associated
with the depositions.

   Authorities told a tale of bizarre rituals, human and animal
sacrifices and the boiling of brains and other organs by the cult, which
practiced Christian Santeria, a blend of voodoo, Roman Catholicism and
old African beliefs.

   They said Constanzo, 26, and Ms. Aldrete, a former honor student at
Texas Southmost College in Brownsville, Texas, directed the sacrifices.
But Ms. Aldrete denied involvement in the killings during two
appearences before reporters this week.

   Cult members said they were convinced the rituals would protect them
from police while they smuggled marijuana into the United States.

   Hundreds of U.S. and Mexican law enforcement agents had searched for
the couple since April 11, when Mexican police discovered the buried
bodies of the 15 victims at the remote ranch near Matamoros.

   The arrested cult members told officials that Constanzo, convinced
police were closing in on him, began throwing handfuls of $50 and $100
bills out of the apartment window and took potshots at passersby who
stopped to pick them up.

   Constanzo then ordered de Leon Valdez to kill him and his henchman,
Martin Quintana Rodriguez. De Leon Valdez said Constanzo slapped him
when he hesitated at first. He killed them both with a burst of
automatic weapon fire and stuffed their bodies in a closet.

   AP-NY-05-09-89 1603EDT
   (C) Copyright 1988, Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.

__________________________________________________________________________

Woman Admits Some Involvement


   MEXICO CITY (AP) - The woman called the ``godmother'' of a drug
smuggling cult that killed 15 people has confessed to involvement in
some of the ritual slayings, U.S. and Mexican officials were quoted
Wednesday as saying.

   Sara Aldrete Villarreal also has exhibited signs of a split
personality, said a source at the Mexico City attorney general's office.

   ``I would say she has three personalities,'' said the source, who
spoke on condition of anonymity. He said one personality emerged when
Ms. Aldrete faces the cameras and denies any involvement in the
slayings, another emerges when she talks to police and ``the third one
comes out when she talks to herself.''

   The Houston Chronicle quoted U.S. Customs Agent Oran Neck as saying
that Ms. Aldrete has ``confessed to conspiracy and involvement'' in the
killings.

   Neck talked to reporters when he returned to Brownsville, Texas, from
a 72-hour trip to Mexico City. He and a Cameron County investigator, Lt.
George Gavito, assisted Mexican authorities in the closing stages of the
case.

   Ms. Aldrete, 24, and five other cult members were arrested in a
Mexico City apartment hideout Saturday afternoon after a shootout with
police.

   The cult's leader, Adolfo de Jesus Constanzo, 26, and his right-hand
man, Martin Quintana Rodriguez, were killed. Alvaro de Leon Valdez, 22,
one of those arrested, said he shot the two on Constanzo's orders.

   Four more suspects were subsequently arrested, the last on Tuesday
night. Seven remained in custody Wednesday, provisionally booked on
charges of homicide, conspiracy and resisting arrest. Two women were
released after questioning, sources at the city attorney general's
office said.

   Constanzo, a Cuban-born American from Florida, and Ms. Aldrete, a
Mexican who attended college in Texas, were wanted on both sides of the
border since April 11 when Mexican police, acting on a tip, dug up 15
mutilated bodies at a desolate ranch near Matamoros.

   Suspects told officials that cult members ritually killed some of the
victims, cut off body parts and boiled organs in an attempt to secure
magical protection from the police.

   One of the victims was identified as Mark Kilroy, 21, a pre-medical
student from Santa Fe, Texas.

   Neck told the Chronicle that ``Sara has kind of lost touch with
reality. No question about it. Her dual personality is coming up pretty
strong right now. When you talk to her without the TV cameras there,
she's pretty truthful.''

   ``She's giving a lot of data with great detail to investigators
working this case right now. It seems like when the cameras come on, she
kind of reverts back to this nice, young, clean-cut kid from Texas
Southmost College,'' Neck said.

   ``When the cameras were there, she was real nice. When she was with
us she was the same ol' witch,'' said Lt. George Gavito, a U.S.
investigator who accompanied Neck.

   AP-NY-05-10-89 1832EDT
   (C) Copyright 1988, Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.

__________________________________________________________________________

Woman Admits Link To Slayings


   MEXICO CITY (AP) - The woman called the ``godmother'' of a drug
smuggling cult that killed 15 people has confessed to involvement in
some of the ritual slayings, U.S. officials said Wednesday.

   Sara Aldrete Villarreal also has exhibited signs of a split
personality, said a source at the Mexico City attorney general's office.

   ``I would say she has three personalities,'' said the source, who
spoke on condition of anonymity. He said one personality emerged when
Ms. Aldrete faces the cameras and denies any involvement in the
slayings, another emerges when she talks to police and ``the third one
comes out when she talks to herself.''

   U.S. Customs Agent Oran Neck said at a news conference in
Brownsville, Texas, that Ms. Aldrete has ``confessed to conspiracy and
involvement'' in the killings.

   Neck spoke after returning from a 72-hour trip to Mexico City. He and
a Cameron County investigator, Lt. George Gavito, assisted Mexican
authorities in the closing stages of the case.

   Ms. Aldrete, 24, and five other cult members were arrested in a
Mexico City apartment hideout Saturday afternoon after a shootout with
police.

   The cult's leader, Adolfo de Jesus Constanzo, 26, and his right-hand
man, Martin Quintana Rodriguez, were killed. Alvaro de Leon Valdez, 22,
one of those arrested, said he shot the two on Constanzo's orders.

   Four more suspects were subsequently arrested, the last on Tuesday
night. Seven remained in custody Wednesday, provisionally booked on
charges of homicide, conspiracy and resisting arrest. Two women were
released after questioning, sources at the city attorney general's
office said.

   Constanzo, a Cuban-born American from Florida, and Ms. Aldrete, a
Mexican who attended college in Texas, were wanted on both sides of the
border since April 11 when Mexican police, acting on a tip, dug up 15
mutilated bodies at a desolate ranch near Matamoros.

   Suspects told officials that cult members ritually killed some of the
victims, cut off body parts and boiled organs in an attempt to secure
magical protection from the police.

   One of the victims was identified as Mark Kilroy, 21, a pre-medical
student from Santa Fe, Texas.

   ``Sara has kind of lost touch with reality,'' Neck said. ``No
question about it. Her dual personality is coming up pretty strong right
now. When you talk to her without the TV cameras there, she's pretty
truthful.''

   ``She's giving a lot of data with great detail to investigators
working this case right now. It seems like when the cameras come on, she
kind of reverts back to this nice, young, clean-cut kid from Texas
Southmost College,'' Neck said.

   ``When the cameras were there, she was real nice. When she was with
us she was the same ol' witch,'' said Lt. George Gavito, a U.S.
investigator who accompanied Neck.

   AP-NY-05-10-89 2224EDT
   (C) Copyright 1988, Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.

__________________________________________________________________________

Woman Admits Slayings Link


   MEXICO CITY (AP) - The woman called the ``godmother'' of a
drug-smuggling cult that killed 15 people was charged Wednesday night
with two other members in the weekend deaths of their leader and his
right-hand man, authorities said.

   ``Godmother'' Sara Aldrete Villarreal, 24; Omar Francisco Orea, 23,
and Alvaro de Leon Valdez, 22, were formally charged in the Saturday
shootings, reported Marco Antonio Diaz de Leon, director of judicial
proceedings for the Mexico City attorney general's office.

   Earlier Wednesday, a source in his office said Ms. Aldrete has a
split personality and U.S. Customs Agent Oran Neck told a news
conference that Ms. Aldrete ``confessed to conspiracy and involvement''
in ritual killings.

   She and the other two also were charged Wednesday with criminal
association, resisting arrest, shooting a firearm at authorities and for
injuries incurred in the Saturday gunbattle with police.

   Cult leader Adolfo de Jesus Constanzo, 26, and his chief lieutenant,
Martin Quintana Rodriguez, were killed in a Mexico City apartment during
a shootout with police. Constanzo, a Cuban-born American from Florida,
reportedly instructed de Leon Valdez to kill him and Quintana as police
moved in.

   The cult believed that ritual killings would give them occult
protection in their drug-running.

   The three charged with homicide, along with two other Mexico City
women, still have not been arraigned, Diaz de Leon said. An arraignment
date was not announced.

   Diaz de Leon said two other Mexico City women arrested Saturday, Dr.
Maria de Lourdes Guero Lopez, 23, a physician, and Maria del Rocio
Cuevas Guerra, 43, were charged with cover-up - a federal crime - in the
ritual deaths at the border city of Matamoros, Mexico, across from
Brownsville, Texas.

   Aldrete, a Mexican who attended college in Texas; Orea, and De Leon
Valdez were charged only in crimes said to have taken place within the
jurisdiction of Mexico City. They have not been charged with the 15
ritual slayings near Matamoros.

   Ms. Aldrete and Orea were charged in the deaths of Constanzo and
Quintana ``because they had agreed and made a pact before the deaths in
case they were going to be arrested,'' Diaz de Leon said. ``This death
pact was carried out.''

   Also on Wednesday, Orea; suspected cult members Salvador Antonio
Gutierrez Juarez, arrested in the capital on Tuesday, and Juan Carlos
Fragoso, arrested Wednesday, were charged in the July 1988 killing of
Ramon Baez, a transvestite who was killed in a Mexico City suburb.

   Authorities earlier said Gutierrez, also known as Jorge Montes,
confessed to participating along with Constanzo in Baez's slaying. Ms.
Aldrete was charged with cover-up in the Baez killing.

   Constanzo and Ms. Aldrete were wanted on both sides of the border
since April 11 when Mexican police, acting on a tip, dug up 15 mutilated
bodies at a desolate ranch near Matamoros.

   One body was identified as that of Mark Kilroy, 21, a pre-med student
from Santa Fe, Texas.

   U.S. authorities said Wednesday that Ms. Aldrete admitted to
involvement in some of the earlier ritual slayings.

   AP-NY-05-11-89 0002EDT
   (C) Copyright 1988, Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.

__________________________________________________________________________

Ex-Interpol Head Was In Cult?


   MEXICO CITY (AP) - A woman described as high priestess of a murderous
drug cult swore Friday that a former Mexican head of Interpol who shot
himself last year belonged to the sect, which has been blamed for 15
ritual slayings.

   The woman, 24-year-old Sara Aldrete Villarreal, protested her own
innocence and denied she urged a gang member to kill their leader as
police closed in.

   At one point, she started to cry and said, ``I want to see my
father.''

   Ms. Aldrete, a former honor student in a Texas college, testified at
her arraignment hearing that Florentino Ventura was a member of the
sect.

   Ventura, the Interpol chief, killed his wife, then shot himself to
death last year.

   Interpol is the Paris-based international police organization that
coordinates the police activities of participating nations against
international criminals. Its full name is International Criminal Police
Organization.

   Ms. Aldrete pleaded innocent to charges of murder, firing a weapon,
resisting arrest, criminal association and causing injuries.

   The charges were filed in connection with the Saturday shootout in
Mexico City in which she and four other cult members were arrested and
the ringleader, Adolfo de Jesus Constanzo, 26, and a companion were shot
to death in a closet.

   ``I never gave orders to kill Adolfo,'' Ms. Aldrete said at her
hearing  before Judge Bernardo Tirado Gutierrez of the 58th Federal
District Court.

   No charges have been filed in connection with 15 macabre slayings on
a ranch outside Matamoros, a Mexican border town near Brownsville,
Texas, or the cult's purported drug-smuggling activities.

   Authorities say the cult believed that through human sacrifices it
could gain occult protection for its drug running. Officials said
members cut off body parts and boiled organs as part of the rituals.

   Prosectors say Ms. Aldrete, Constanzo and three other cult members
made a pact to kill each other rather than face arrest. When Constanzo
saw police on the street below, he panicked and demanded to be killed,
they say.

   They said Ms. Aldrete encouraged fellow cultist Alvaro de Leon Valdez
to turn his machine gun on Constanzo, a Cuban-born American from
Florida, and Constanzo's right-hand man, Martin Quintana.

   The death pact and her alleged encouragement are the basis of the
murder charge.

   Ms. Aldrete denied ordering de Leon Valdez to shoot Constanzo and
Quintana.

   ``Everyone was yelling,'' she said. ``I was ... extremely nervous.
What I yelled to Alvaro de Leon was that they stop shooting, that they
(the police) were going to kill all of us.'' 

   AP-NY-05-12-89 2045EDT
   (C) Copyright 1988, Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.