By Louie Gilot / El Paso Times

Article Launched: 09/25/2006 03:33:00 PM MDT

Juárez police confiscated a lion from a padded trailer in the Valley of Juárez on Saturday, police said.

Patrolling police officers spotted the feline inside the trailer that was hitched to a pickup truck. Several men in the truck told police they were taking the lion from the village of San Isidro to the inauguration of a recreation center in the village of San Agustin where there would be exhibitions of animals and cart races. The men had no papers for the lion and were arrested.

They are Juan Carlos Fernández, 43, Jerónimo Ortega, 20, Jesús García Romero, 47, Fernando Mendiola, 22, and Jorge Antonio Ortega Cortes, 17.

The lion, who is one year and seven months old, was turned over to a federal environmental agency.