MEXICO'S DRUG WARS RAGE ON UNCHECKED

EL PASO - A man was arrested allegedly smuggling 137 pounds of
marijuana in the fuel tank of his pickup. That day, across the Mexican
border in Ciudad Juarez, authorities began digging up graves believed
to hold the enemies of a ruthless drug gang.

A day later, another man was caught at the border, allegedly with 232
pounds of marijuana under the floorboard of his van. At the grave
site, body bags were being loaded onto a truck, also destined for the
United States, authorities said.

As the search for bodies unfolded last week on Mexican ranches outside
Juarez, the smuggling of narcotics across the border into the United
States continued uninterrupted.

Regardless of how many corpses eventually are unearthed, and
regardless of what is learned of their deaths, experts warned that the
drug trade is not likely to feel an impact. They say that will not
come without a renewed commitment to bring down the men calling the
shots - and a decrease in Americans' appetite for drugs.

''The final test of this will be not that you just find the bodies and
not that you find some low-level gunman, but that the leaders of these
organizations and the corrupt officials that work with them are
arrested, brought to justice and punished severely,'' said Thomas
Constantine, retired head of the US Drug Enforcement
Administration.

''That will be the test of whether or not this will be successful,''
he added. ''And that will not be easy.''

The joint US-Mexican search at four sites around Juarez, a city of 1.3
million people, began after a former Mexican federal police officer
told the FBI that 100 or more bodies may be buried there.

The Mexican attorney general, Jorge Madrazo, immediately pointed the
finger at the Juarez drug cartel, one of Mexico's largest and most
violent gangs.

He said that more than 100 people, including 22 Americans, had
disappeared in Juarez over the past several years, presumably at the
hand of the cartel, now headed by Vicente Carrillo Fuentes.

Carrillo Fuentes, who assumed control of the gang after the 1997 death
of his brother, Amado, is among dozens of drug traffickers facing US
indictments.

But such prosecutions have been hindered by the inability of Mexican
officials - and the unwillingness of corrupt officials - to round up
and extradite the wanted men.

''We know who they are. We know what crimes they have committed. The
problem is that nobody can find them in Mexico,'' Constantine said.
''As long as they exist in a sanctuary, we will be unable to bring
these people to justice.''

There have been sporadic arrests, turf wars and leads, but drug
activity along the border from Texas to California continues to blossom.

In El Paso, US Customs Service seizures have soared from 40,012 pounds
of marijuana, cocaine and heroin in 1990 to 269,021 pounds in fiscal
1999. The DEA estimates 500 pounds of marijuana purchased in Juarez
for $50,000 can be sold for $400,000 in US cities like St. Louis.