MEXICAN DRUG LORDS UNIFY, INSIDERS SAY

Apodaca, Mexico -- Mexican Drug Lords Aim to Battle Law Enforcement
Instead Of Each Other

Wearing business suits and cowboy boots, they flew in on private
jets, landed at several airports and took a short drive to this
northern town in new Nissan Xterras.

They were Mexico's drug lords, who control most of the drugs smuggled
to the United States, their bodyguards, associates and their contacts
in government. Sixty men gathered in a restaurant, drawing the notice
of local people and police in nearby Monterrey.

A participant in the three-day meeting, as well as associates of the
smugglers, government officials and others familiar with the drug
trade, gave independent accounts, speaking on condition of anonymity.
They agreed on the meeting's central purpose: to join forces after 12
years of bloody turf wars and form a new cartel to unite operations
and cut costs.

The alliance has been in the works for three years, but was made more
urgent by a tough line from new Mexican President Vicente Fox; by a
court decision making it easier to extradite drug smugglers to the
United States; and by a proposed U.S.-Mexican crackdown on
money-laundering, said government insiders and associates of the
smugglers.

Nobody has a good estimate of how much money Mexico makes from drug
smuggling. The White House estimates that about half of the $65
billion in drugs Americans buy each year comes through Mexico. Drug
trafficking is one of Mexico's top sources of income, rivaling oil,
tourism and assembly-for-export plants.

The drug industry has corrupted law enforcement from top to bottom.
Police assigned to drug duty are routinely arrested for collaborating
with smugglers. In 1996, Mexico's new drug czar was found to be on
the payroll of Carrillo Fuentes. Former Gen. Jesus Gutierrez Rebollo
remains in jail. The last major drug cartel in Mexico collapsed in
1989 when its longtime boss, Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo, was
arrested. The new alliance would end the war of succession that has
killed hundreds of people, and mean a major shift in the drug trade
in the Western Hemisphere, creating a syndicate better equipped to
evade the law.

Rafael Macedo de la Concha, Fox's new attorney general, said his
agents investigated tips about such a meeting and found no evidence
that it had occurred. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration
refused comment.

But the sources said the meeting was Jan. 26-28 and had a guest list
that read like a who's who of Mexican drug smugglers:

- -- Juan Esparragosa Moreno, who Mexican authorities say is a veteran
drug boss known as ``El Azul'' for his dark, almost blue-toned skin;
other heirs of the late Amado Carrillo Fuentes, a k a ``the Lord of
the Skies,'' including Ramon Alcides Magana, a former police officer,
who authorities say saved the life of Carrillo Fuentes' son and
became a close confidant. They represented the Juarez drug-smuggling
organization, which operates on Mexico's Caribbean coast, central
Mexico and the west Texas border.

- -- Humberto Garcia Abrego, accused by Mexican authorities of running
the Gulf drug gang of his brother Juan, who is serving 11 life
sentences in a U.S. prison for drug smuggling. The gang operates on
Mexico's Gulf of Mexico coast. With him was Jaime Gonzalez, who
associates say slipped out of Almoloya prison to attend.

- -- Ignacio ``Nacho'' Coronel, reputed leader of the Colima gang,
which operates in the Pacific coast state of Colima and on the far
eastern border with Texas.

- -- Ismael ``El Mayo'' Zambada, wanted by Mexican authorities, and
representatives of Joaquin ``el Chapo'' Guzman, who recently escaped
from a Mexican maximum-security prison. The two work in a semi-
independent but coordinated manner on Mexico's Pacific coast and
north to the Arizona border.

- -- Gilberto Valdes, a businessman who sources said represents
smugglers in Chiapas state.

- -- Two men in military uniforms with generals' stars, to whom the
others referred as ``representatives of the attorney general's
office,'' the participant and associates said. And, they said, a
group of Colombians was present. These five major drug-smuggling
groups make up a new cartel, which encompasses many smaller gangs,
the sources said. The only major group to decline the invitation to
the meeting was the Tijuana-based Arellano Felix brothers, who run
the bloodiest organization, sources said.

Drug trade analysts confirmed an apparent alliance.

Attorney General Macedo said his office asked nearby residents about
any unusual movements at the time but was told nobody had seen
anything strange.