EXTRADITION OF DRUG CARTEL BOSS MAY TAKE YEARS

Justice: Mexican officials say Benjamin Arellano Felix will probably face
trial at home before any hand-over to the United States is considered.

MEXICO CITY -- Mexican officials cautioned Monday that any move to
extradite notorious Tijuana drug cartel chief Benjamin Arellano Felix to
face justice in the United States could take months, if not years.

Arellano Felix, one of the most wanted men on both sides of the border, was
captured over the weekend in an operation that one high-ranking U.S.
official called a "sea change" marking Mexico's more aggressive tactics
against drug traffickers who until recently operated with impunity.

Another "big fish"--Osiel Cardenas, head of the so-called Gulf Cartel--is
in the cross hairs of Mexican police and may soon be arrested, said the
U.S. official, who is closely connected to the drug fight. Cardenas' cartel
is accused of trafficking cocaine and assaulting U.S. federal agents in the
state of Tamaulipas near the Texas border. "We may be seeing the last days
of some untouchables," the official said.

The arrest of Arellano Felix has put President Vicente Fox in a strong
position in advance of next week's talks with President Bush in Monterrey,
Mexico, Foreign Minister Jorge Castaneda said Monday. Immigration, border
infrastructure, security and water issues will be on the agenda.

Arellano Felix, 49, whose drug mafia is responsible for an estimated
one-quarter or more of the cocaine entering the United States from Mexico,
was arrested by army units early Saturday outside Puebla, east of Mexico
City, after having eluded capture for the better part of a decade. No shots
were fired, and he is now in the maximum-security La Palma prison near the
capital.

Also Saturday, Mexican Atty. Gen. Rafael Macedo de la Concha declared that
Benjamin's brother, Ramon Arellano Felix, 37, the cartel's chief enforcer,
died in a Feb. 10 police shootout in Mazatlan. DNA tests are pending to
confirm the death.

The capture of one Arellano Felix brother and the apparent death of another
has left the cartel "dismantled," Macedo told reporters.

U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration officials said they would press for
the extradition of Benjamin Arellano Felix to face trafficking charges in
the United States. Castaneda told reporters Monday that extradition is not
guaranteed but subject to judicial recommendation. He added, however, that
the Mexican government had agreed to numerous extradition requests in the
past year.

Mexican law forbids extradition of Mexican nationals who would face either
a life sentence or the death penalty in a foreign court. But U.S.
authorities have gotten around this restriction by brokering deals in which
traffickers would be convicted of consecutive terms of 20 years or more.

Before extradition is considered, Arellano Felix would probably face
prosecution in Mexico, Castaneda said. The process could take years; the
foreign minister's chief of staff, Arturo Sarukhan Casamitjana, noted that
even "small trials" of lesser drug traffickers can last 18 months in Mexico.

If convicted on both sides of the border, Arellano Felix faces what could
amount to life in prison. After his Mexican trial, he could "go to the
United States for his trial there, come back to serve his sentence here,
and then be sent back to the United States to prison," Castaneda said.

Arellano Felix had been living in a quiet Puebla suburb under a false name
since August, when he paid $250,000 for a walled house. Neighbors,
including executives at the nearby Volkswagen factory, described him as quiet.

The high-ranking U.S. government official, who asked that his name not be
used, said Mexican authorities acted on their own to capture Arellano
Felix, with minimal help from U.S. authorities. He lauded the new spirit of
cooperation between the United States and Mexico.

"This ought to send shock waves through the whole criminal element in
Mexico that the rules have changed, that the tolerance that allowed these
guys to go free doesn't exist anymore," he said.

U.S.-Mexico cooperation has been credited for the capture last year of two
figures accused of trafficking narcotics through the Yucatan Peninsula:
Mario Villanueva, the ex-governor of Quintana Roo state, and his alleged
conspirator Alcides Ramon Magana, known as "El Metro."

The U.S. official pointed to last fall's Operation Landslide, which broke
up a heroin-smuggling ring based in Michoacan state and led to dozens of
arrests in California and Mexico, as evidence of a new trust between U.S.
and Mexican law enforcement.

"Before Fox, had we given that information to Mexicans, we might have seen
it splashed in newspapers the next day," but no one would have been
arrested, he said.