U.S. HAS LOST DRUG WAR, REPUTED BOSS OF TIJUANA CARTEL DECLARES

Officials Admit They've Seen No Slowdown Since His March Arrest, Jailing

ALMOLOYA DE JUAREZ, Mexico - Benjamin Arellano Felix, accused of running
Mexico's most ruthless drug cartel, said the United States has lost its war
on drugs and that violent trafficking gangs will thrive as long as
Americans keep buying marijuana, cocaine and heroin.

"It would stop being a business if the United States didn't want drugs,"
Mr. Arellano said Tuesday, in his first interview with the U.S. media, at
La Palma maximum security federal prison. Mexican authorities hope to keep
him there for the rest of his life.

U.S. and Mexican officials say Mr. Arellano, 48, heads the Tijuana-based
cartel bearing his family name, which has moved billions of dollars worth
of Mexican and Colombian drugs into the United States while committing some
of the most vicious murders ever seen in the drug underworld.

But they also acknowledge that since his arrest in March there has been no
slowdown in the flow of drugs over the border.

"They talk about a war against the Arellano brothers," said Mr. Arellano,
who eluded the Mexican police and military, the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration and the FBI for more than a decade. "They haven't won. I'm
here, and nothing has changed."

Authorities say Mr. Arellano was the brains behind an organization that
controlled a third or more of the cocaine traffic into the United States
and spent countless millions to buy protection from police, judges and
generals. They said his top enforcer, his brother Ramon Arellano Felix,
left a trail of hundreds of mutilated corpses.

Mr. Arellano described himself a "simple" housing contractor. He said he
suffers from daily migraine headaches from the stress of being wrongly accused.

Told of Mr. Arellano's comments, Donald Thornhill Jr., a DEA spokesman in
San Diego, where for years there has been a joint DEA-FBI task force
devoted solely to the Arellano Felix organization, said Mr. Arellano will
face a mountain of evidence at his upcoming trials.

Mr. Arrelano was evasive about whether he thinks his brother Ramon is dead
or alive. Authorities say Ramon Arrelano was killed last February in a
shootout in the Pacific resort city of Mazatlan. They said the body, which
later disappeared under suspicious circumstances, was identified by DNA
testing at an FBI lab.

"The police say he's dead, but I don't know," Mr. Arellano said.

Law enforcement officials said Mr. Arellano is being coy to scare potential
witnesses against him. With Benjamin in jail and Ramon dead, officials said
their organization has been taken over by Javier and Eduardo, their
lesser-known brothers.