MEXICO ARRESTS SUSPECT IN KILLING OF DEA AGENT

Crime: Capture Of Fugitive Who Allegedly Ordered 1994 Slaying In Arizona
Drug Case Caps A Lengthy Manhunt.

Mexico City--After a four-year hunt that stretched from remote mountains to
sweltering Yucatan villages, Mexican authorities announced Monday that they
had captured one of the FBI's most wanted fugitives, a Mexican accused in
the killing of a U.S. drug agent in Arizona.

U.S. authorities hailed the arrest of Agustin Vazquez Mendoza, 30, which
had become a priority in their often troubled relationship with Mexican
anti-drug authorities.

"His apprehension proves to drug traffickers around the world that no one
who harms or kills a DEA agent, law enforcement officer or other public
official will be allowed to remain free, and that DEA will pursue these
traffickers to the ends of the Earth," said Donnie R. Marshall,
administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration in Washington.

U.S. authorities were so eager to track down Vazquez Mendoza that they had
offered a $2.2-million reward for information leading to his arrest and
conviction. He has been on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list since 1998.

Vazquez Mendoza is accused in the killing of DEA Special Agent Richard Fass
in Glendale, Ariz., in 1994. The U.S. agent was shot by Vazquez Mendoza's
associates when he went to buy 22 pounds of methamphetamine in an
undercover operation, a DEA statement alleges.

Vazquez Mendoza had ordered his underlings to kill the American to keep
both the drugs and the $160,000 the agent was about to pay, U.S. and
Mexican justice authorities said in separate statements Monday. Vazquez
Mendoza, a native of Michoacan, a state known for its production of
marijuana and methamphetamine, fled to his native country after the
killing. A warrant for his arrest was issued in Mexico in 1996. The manhunt
for Vazquez Mendoza had been one of the most intense in recent Mexican
history. Soldiers and police in helicopters and trucks combed the wooded
mountain area of Michoacan known as Tierra Caliente, or the Hot Lands,
searching for the fugitive. Residents were so infuriated by their treatment
by authorities that they lodged complaints with human rights authorities,
according to Mexican press reports.

The hunt then moved to the state of Campeche on the Yucatan peninsula, and
finally to the southern state of Puebla, where federal police arrested
Vazquez Mendoza at 7:45 p.m. Sunday, said Eduardo Ibarrola, a Mexican
assistant deputy attorney general.

The fugitive was captured as he made a call at a pay phone in the city of
Tehuacan, where he apparently was living, Ibarrola said in an interview.
Vazquez Mendoza was with his wife, 2-year-old son and 11-month-old daughter.

"We searched the whole country," said Ibarrola, explaining that Vazquez
Mendoza had been pursued by a special team answering to the federal police
director. "We sought him with brutal intensity."

The official said he was confident that Vazquez Mendoza would be extradited
to the United States to stand trial. However, the process probably will
take months. Some alleged drug traffickers have won appeals against
extradition in recent months.

U.S. authorities, who have frequently criticized Mexican anti-drug
authorities for corruption and inefficiency, lavished praise on their
counterparts for the detention. Vazquez Mendoza is the third important
suspect in a drug-related case to be arrested recently.

Mexican authorities also detained Jesus Labra Aviles and Ismael Higuera
Guerrero, alleged to be important members of the Tijuana cartel.

Ramon Arellano Felix, a leader of the Tijuana cartel, is the only other
Mexican on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list. He has eluded capture for years,
to the frustration of U.S. authorities