SHOTS FIRED NEAR HOME OF BAJA CALIFORNIA'S TOP DRUG INVESTIGATOR

Tijuana Resident Works For Mexican Attorney General

TIJUANA - Assailants sprayed bullets near the home of Baja California's
anti-drug czar late Thursday night, but no one was injured.

Alberto Ramos Ramos' staff downplayed the shooting, saying it was not an
attempt on Ramos' life.

"He is here; he is fine; he is working," said Irma Garcia, an assistant in
the attorney general's communications department.

As state representative of the Mexican federal Attorney General's Office,
Ramos oversees investigations of much of the drug-related crime in Baja
California.

The job can create enemies in a region dominated by the powerful and
ruthless Arellano Felix drug cartel.

The Attorney General's Office dealt a blow to the cartel last month when
soldiers and federal agents detained Jesus "Chuy" Labra, a Tijuana
businessman reputed to be a family member of and close adviser to the
Arellanos. Labra is under house arrest in Mexico City.

This month, three federal agents who participated in the Labra
investigation were found dead. They were slain before their car was rolled
off a mountain road, the Mexican Attorney General's Office determined.

Little information about the shooting near Ramos' home was available
yesterday from law enforcement agencies. The shooting occurred about 11
p.m. in the Colinas de Agua Caliente neighborhood, Tijuana police said.
Ramos' car reportedly was damaged.

"There were no people wounded," said Tijuana police spokesman Lorenzo
Garibay, dismissing reports in the Tijuana media that a security guard had
been shot in the head.

State and city police agents referred requests for further information to
the federal Attorney General's Office in Tijuana. That office did not have
any further comment.

Ramos has been working in Tijuana less than six months. The normally
reticent official appeared in public with the Baja California attorney
general in March when they pledged to work together more closely after the
shooting death of Tijuana police chief Alfredo de la Torre Marquez in late
February.

State investigators are in charge of the de la Torre case and most other
homicides. If a drug connection is found, the cases are handed over to
federal investigators. State investigators say they believe, but cannot yet
prove, that de la Torre was killed by a drug group from Sinaloa trying to
muscle its way into the Arellano Felix cartel's turf.