ARREST SIGNALS TIJUANA CARTEL'S DEFEAT

The arrest early Saturday in Mexico of Benjamin Arellano Felix drives a
stake through the vile heart of the drug cartel that bears his family's
name. It comes as the latest success scored by law enforcement against the
Tijuana-based syndicate once estimated to supply as much as 40 percent of
the entire U.S. cocaine market.

Benjamin Arellano, 49, acted as the cartel's de facto CEO, setting strategy
and overseeing the syndicate's multibillion dollar finances. The cartel's
number two ranking figure, Benjamin's younger brother, Ramon, is now
confirmed to have died in a shootout with police last month in the Mexican
resort city of Mazatlan. The cartel's operations chief and money laundering
mastermind are also in police custody in Mexico and awaiting trial.

Thus, Benjamin's arrest makes for a clean sweep of the AFO's top hierarchy.

In addition, a recent series of law enforcement coups has inflicted further
damage to a cartel that is at least reeling, if not effectively in dissolution.

Cartel lieutenant Everardo Arturo Paez Martinez was extradited from Mexico,
pled guilty in San Diego to drug trafficking charges and was sentenced to a
30-year prison term. A quarter-mile-long tunnel the cartel used to ship
drugs under the U.S.-Mexico border was uncovered last month. Elements of
the AFO's drug distribution network in San Diego, Minneapolis and Denver
were rolled up last Friday by federal agents and local police who made 27
arrests. The Treasury Department recently froze the U.S. assets of Baja
businesses believed to be laundering the AFO's drug profits.

There can be no doubt that all this adds up to a crushing cumulative blow
against a narco-trafficing cartel rightly regarded as the most violent and
one of the most powerful of Mexico's drug mafias.

Credit for this spectacular success is due, first, to the dedicated work of
Mexican and U.S. law enforcement alike.

The indispensable key to defeating the AFO and other Mexican syndicates
that flood the United States with illicit narcotics is the fullest possible
alliance between the U.S. and Mexican governments. Absent Mexico's help,
the best efforts of American law enforcement won't be enough. Conversely,
Mexico's undermanned and frequently corruption-compromised forces need
training, technical assistance and intelligence from the United States.

The successful campaign against the Arellanos is, in fact, proving to be a
case study in what the two governments, acting together, can accomplish.

Mexican President Vicente Fox vowed on taking office two years ago to
dismantle the Arellano Felix Organization and arrest its principals. He's
proving as good as his word. The Bush administration efforts, spearheaded
by the Drug Enforcement Administration and aided by the Federal Bureau of
Investigation and other federal agencies, reflect a welcome determination
to fight drug trafficking across the U.S.-Mexico border.

That campaign is winning the biggest victory ever against Mexico's drug cartels.