DEA ON ALERT AFTER ALLEGED THREAT

EL PASO, Texas (AP) -- U.S. drug agents have been asked to take extra
precautions after being warned that a Mexican drug cartel had offered
a $200,000 reward for killing a federal officer, an agency spokesman
said Monday.

Michael McManus, a spokesman for the Drug Enforcement Administration,
said agents have been put on "heightened alert" in the past two
months, and agents along the Southwest border have been advised to
travel in pairs.

McManus said another federal law enforcement agency alerted the DEA
about the bounty offer. He wouldn't provide further details.

The threat coincided with a joint Mexico-FBI investigation into mass
graves in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, just across the border from El Paso.
Mexican authorities have said there are indications that at least
seven of the nine victims unearthed may have been killed by a
Juarez-based cartel headed by the Carrillo Fuentes family.

According to an internal memo circulated by the Border Patrol, the
$200,000 offer was made by that cartel, Border Patrol spokesman Jorge
Swank said.

"On average, once or twice a year we hear a rumor of that nature,"
said Roy Villareal, a spokesman for the Border Patrol's San Diego
sector. "It's become a fact of life for us."