Drug War Breaks Out In Mexico

Death of Cartel Boss Leaves Power Vacuum

By Douglas Farah and Molly Moore
Washington Post Foreign Service

The death of Amado Carrillo Fuentes, one of the most powerful drug
traffickers in the world, has set off a bloody struggle for control of
Mexico's multibilliondollar cocaine trade, according to U.S. and Mexican law
enforcement officials.

Carrillo died July 4 in a hospital after undergoing plastic surgery and
liposuction. The following day, Tomas Colsa McGregor, well known to U.S. law
enforcement as the top money launderer for Carrillo's drug cartel, was
dragged from his Mexico City home, tortured and shot in the head several
times. Over the next two weeks, five other midlevel cartel members were
gunned down in Juarez, Mexico, the center of Carrillo's drug empire,
according to Mexican authorities.

Carrillo's organization, which controls illegal drug shipments across the
Mexican border from Texas to Arizona, is the largest criminal organization
smuggling cocaine to the United States. Over the past several years, it took
over much of the U.S. drug distribution system once managed by Colombian
groups, such as the Cali cartel, and had recently gained control of the huge
New York market, according to U.S. sources.

U.S. and Mexican law enforcement officials say it is still too soon to tell
who will inherit the mantle of leadership in Carrillo's organization or even
who is gaining the upper hand in the bloodletting. It also is not entirely
clear whether the killings are the result of infighting within Carrillo's
Juarez cartel or the work of rival drug groups, particularly the Arellano
Felix organization based in Tijuana. The Arellano Felix organization, led by
five brothers, controls the California border region and part of the Arizona
boundary.

U.S. and Mexican intelligence sources said that if a fullscale war broke out
between the organizations it would likely be along the Arizona border, where
the Juarez cartel had been slowly trying to displace the Arellano Felix
group.

"We can foresee a period of violence as people try to take over or prevent
people from taking over what is a multibilliondollar business," said a
Mexicobased official of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. "There's
always a state of flux after a change like this. You can only guess what will
happen. . . . No one knows. The traffickers don't know."

Mariano Herran Salvatti, Mexico's antidrugs chief, said in a television
interview over the weekend that the Juarez cartel is "disjointed; it doesn't
have a head." He warned that if a consensus on a leader is not reached there
could be a "disintegration of the cartel."

If the killings are the result of an attempt by the Arellano Felix brothers
to move into territory and routes traditionally controlled by Carrillo, the
war could be especially bloody because the two organizations have a long
history of violence.

The slayings thus far have been notably brutal. On Saturday, Juan Eugenio
Rosales, a convicted drug trafficker and Carrillo associate known as "the
Genius," died in a hail of bullets while driving his car into his garage,
Mexican police said. Two other victims, a man and a woman, were found dead in
the trunk of a stolen car in Juarez with ropes tied around their necks,
plastic bags taped over their heads and their feet bound with wire, police
said.

"There will never be peace between the Carrillo organization and the Arellano
Felix organization," said a senior U.S. law enforcement official who has
monitored the Mexican cartels for years. "There is just too much bad blood
there. They have killed each other's wives and children; they have passed on
intelligence about each other to law enforcement. It is personal, not
business. Business they could work out."

U.S. and Mexican drug experts say the leadership of the Carrillo organization
is being shared at present by three of his lieutenants, any of whom could
emerge as the dominant force, depending on internal negotiations and the
willingness of Colombian suppliers to deal with them individually or
collectively.

U.S. and Mexican sources identified the three as Juan Jose "Blue"
Esparragoza, a key link between the organization and Colombian cocaine
suppliers; Vicente Carrillo, Amado's younger brother, who was in charge of
cocaine transportation; and Hector "the Blond" Palma, the most violent of the
three.

Palma, who was arrested in 1995 on a host of homicide and drug trafficking
charges, is still in prison, but many of the serious charges against him have
been dismissed under questionable circumstances. He is currently serving a 2
1/2year sentence for possessing illegal weapons.

Palma is considered especially dangerous because of the hatred between him
and the Arellano Felix brothers. In 1989, according to law enforcement
reports, an associate of the Arellano Felix organization named Rafael Clavel
Moreno was sent to infiltrate Palma's group. Clavel seduced Palma's wife,
persuaded her to withdraw $7 million of her husband's money, then had her
decapitated and sent her head back to Palma in a box.

Law enforcement officials said there also is credible evidence that Clavel
took Palma's two children to Venezuela, where they were thrown off a bridge
and drowned. Clavel died in a Venezuelan prison.

In November 1992, Palma reportedly tried to retaliate, ordering a
sophisticated military assault on a discotheque in the Mexican resort of
Puerto Vallarta, where the Arellano Felix clan was holding a party. Nine
people died, but the Arellano Felix brothers escaped. Last week, a judge
dismissed charges against Palma in connection with that massacre.

Esparragoza, U.S. intelligence officials said, draws his strength from his
direct ties to Colombian traffickers which allow him to control the supply
of cocaine to the organization as well as his longstanding links with
other traffickers, giving him the opportunity to build alliances.

Vicente Carrillo, according to U.S. and Mexican officials, has not yet proved
himself capable of running a large drug organization.

What made Amado Carrillo so effective, U.S. and Mexican sources say, was his
ability to meld different trafficking organizations into a federation that he
controlled. It is not yet clear if anyone in the Carrillo organization can
wield the personal clout, backed by use of force against enemies or allies
who get out of line, that Amado did.

U.S. officials acknowledge they know far less about the internal workings of
the Mexican cartels than they do about the powerful Colombian organizations
that supply the Mexicans with drugs. The lack of such detailed information,
they say, is partly a result of the organizations' ability to
compartmentalize their operations, making them difficult to penetrate.

But, U.S. officials said, that problem is greatly exacerbated by the fact
that antidrug intelligence information is rarely shared by law enforcement
officials across the border because of distrust and animosity between them.

"What we know stops at the border," said a source familiar with U.S.
intelligence operations. "We have all kinds of major investigations, but we
have no one on the Mexican side we trust to give the information to, so we
don't pass it on."

Washington Post correspondent John Ward Anderson contributed to this article.
Moore reported from Mexico City, Farah from Washington.

@CAPTION: Police officers guard the body of drug trafficker Juan Eugenio
Rosales, known as "the Genius," who was gunned down outside his residence on
Saturday.

@CAPTION: Amado Carrillo Fuentes headed cartel shipping cocaine to U.S.

© Copyright 1997 The Washington Post Company