U.S. OFFICIALS PREDICT ARREST OF SUSPECTED DRUG LORDS

SAN DIEGO - Emboldened by the recent arrest of an alleged top
lieutenant of a suspected Tijuana drug cartel, U.S. law enforcement
officials predicted at a news conference Thursday that the arrest of
the brothers behind the murderous organization may be near.

"They are more vulnerable than they have been in many, many years,"
said Bill Gore, agent in charge of the San Diego office of the FBI.
"We have a good chance for some arrests."

Gregory Vega, U.S. attorney for San Diego and Imperial counties, said
brothers Benjamin and Ramon Arellano-Felix may be hiding in the U.S.
because they have become "notorious" in Mexico.

"If they are in the U.S., they will be caught," Vega
said.

The U.S. State Department is offering a reward of $2 million for
information leading to the arrest and conviction of either of the
brothers, whose drug organization is linked to Colombian suppliers who
provide drugs for the voracious illicit market in this country. The
Mexican government is offering 4 million pesos ($418,000).

At the news conference with Mexican officials, Vega and Gore announced
the unsealing of a 1998 indictment charging the two brothers, Ismael
Higuera-Guerrero and three lesser figures with drug smuggling, money
laundering and assisting in acts of violence.

Higuera, the cartel's suspected commander, was arrested last week in
Ensenada by the Mexican army and federal agents.

As outlined by the indictment, the cartel receives large shipments of
cocaine and marijuana from Colombia and then smuggles them into the
U.S. through the ports of entry at San Ysidro, Otay Mesa, Tecate and
Calexico. Just how that is done was not revealed.

The unsealing of the indictment comes as Mexico's ruling political
party, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), is facing the most
serious threat in its 71-year reign: an insurgent campaign by National
Action Party presidential candidate Vicente Fox, who alleges that the
PRI is corrupt and in league with drug traffickers.

The cartel is alleged to have engaged in bloody turf wars with other
drug organizations, including a shootout in the Guadalajara airport in
1993 in which Roman Catholic Cardinal Juan Posados-Ocampo was killed
by cross-fire.

The indictment says the cartel imposed a "tax" on other drug
trafficking groups for operating in their territory and has a string
of "stash" houses in the U.S. and Mexico to store drugs, money,
vehicles, automatic weapons, armored cars and hand grenades.