Unusual suspects: Police may be behind executions in Venezuela.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)

MARACAIBO, Venezuela _ The word spread quickly as the bodies of eight thieves, glue sniffers and neighborhood bullies began turning up in April, shotgun blasts on their chests, notes signed ''The Anonymous Avenger'' stuck in their clothes: The police were executing criminals again.

Probably not the same police officers who killed 16 victims in this gritty oil port in 1995 and left behind the same notes. Probably younger, meaner cops _ two victims were also stabbed or garroted. But almost certainly the cops.

Across the country, police death squads are killing more of Venezuela's suspected criminals, or simply poor people.

Many are executed outright or killed in fake shootouts to counter a rising crime wave and sidestep a corrupt judicial system roiled by a 1999 ``modernization.''

The respected Provea human rights group documented 241 ''extrajudicial killings'' by police and other security officers from October 2000 through September 2001, compared with 170 in the previous 12-month period.

At least 240 people were killed by Venezuelan police in 2001 ''in circumstances suggesting they were victims of extrajudicial execution or excessive use of force,'' Amnesty International added in its latest report.

In the western state of Portugesa alone, a so-called ''Extermination Group No. 1'' allegedly made up of police and civilians has been blamed for more than 100 killings between mid-2000 and September 2001.