FEAR, LOATHING AND DRUGS IN MEXICO

A Search For Bodies Brings Unwanted Attention To A Notorious Cartel

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico -- Since authorities began dismantling the
notorious Cali and Medellin drug cartels of Colombia in the late
1980s, drug barons have learned to shun the spotlight, law-enforcement
officials say.

Last week, however, one of the most powerful drug-running
organizations in Mexico, the so-called Juarez cartel, grabbed
headlines around the world, as Mexican and U.S. investigators
excavated at least four clandestine graves believed to contain the
remains of scores of people who apparently died at the hands of the
ruthless organization.

While nobody expected the publicity and the legion of Mexican and
American federal agents who descended on the city to affect the flow
of drugs into the U.S., analysts said it would force the drug lords to
re-evaluate their tactics.

"The media attention from outsiders will make life for the traffickers
like living in a fish bowl," said Luis Plascencia, associate director
of the Tomas Rivera Policy Institute at the University of Texas in
Austin.

"The key actors will say, `We need to slow down.' "

Investigators said they have unearthed at least six bodies since
Monday in a desert ranch outside the city. According to an FBI
informant, the number of victims could total more than 100, including
several Americans.

As the story unfolded, it helped shed light on the international drug
trade--a world of greed, corruption, betrayal and murder.

As early as the mid-1970s, U.S. law-enforcement officials, who were
accustomed to nabbing marijuana smugglers, began confiscating small
amounts of cocaine along the Texas-Mexican border.

Over the years, the loads got larger, and by the early 1980s, after
American drug agents began to crack down on Caribbean smuggling routes
from Colombia to south Florida, investigators discovered that the
Colombians had teamed up with Mexicans to get their cocaine to the
lucrative U.S. market.

Ciudad Juarez, a gritty city of 1.2 million people across the Rio
Grande from El Paso, Texas, has long been a den of vice and smuggling
and offered Colombian dealers established smuggling routes into the
U.S.

It also offered a notoriously corrupt federal police commander, Rafael
Aguilar Guajardo, who worked for the Mexican equivalent of the FBI.

According to American law-enforcement officials and local authorities
familiar with the Juarez organization, Aguilar would shake down drug
traffickers operating in the city. That was before the traffickers
became more powerful than the police.

In the mid-1980s, with America's taste for cocaine growing, Aguilar
resigned his post and consolidated various factions of Mexican drug
traffickers, including his brother-in-law, businessman Rafael Munoz
Talavera.

Together, they created the Juarez cartel, which today uses Chicago as
one of its main cocaine distribution points.

Within years, Aguilar and Munoz bribed and killed their way to the
top.

In 1989, in a Los Angeles warehouse, authorities confiscated 21 tons
of cocaine, the largest seizure ever. The shipment was linked to Munoz.

A former U.S. government official with knowledge of the organization
said the group grew like any successful enterprise.

"Like a regular business, business grows, the number of employees
increases, and your influence increases," he said. "Instead of being a
mom and pop store, you have become a corporation."

While the Mexican government jailed Munoz in connection with the Los
Angeles seizure, another trafficker, Amado Carrillo Fuentes, became
the cartel's undisputed leader.

He got the job by ordering the assassination of Aguilar in
1993.

Under Carrillo Fuentes, the Juarez cartel flourished like never
before, raking in an estimated $200 million each week. Carrillo
Fuentes came to be known as "The Lord of the Skies," for his use of
large aircraft to move tons of cocaine from Colombia to the
U.S.-Mexico border.

Robert Castillo, the Drug Enforcement Administration agent in charge
of the El Paso office, said the Colombians then began paying the
Mexicans with drugs, instead of cash, to smuggle drugs into the U.S.

The Mexicans, he said, can set their own price.

With his billion-dollar empire, Carrillo Fuentes' influence reached
the highest levels of the Mexican government.

In February 1997, the nation's drug czar, Army Gen. Jesus Gutierrez
Rebollo, was arrested on charges of providing protection for the
Juarez cartel in exchange for money, houses and expensive cars. He is
serving a lengthy prison term.

In 1996, after Munoz was cleared of the charges against him, he
launched a gang war against Carrillo Fuentes for control of the
organization, according to Travis Kuykendall, a former DEA agent in El
Paso.

Then in July 1997, Carrillo Fuentes died during plastic surgery in a
clinic in Mexico City while reportedly trying to change his appearance.

Afterward, a bloody power struggle for control of the cartel ensued,
leaving dozens dead in Juarez.

Cartel hitmen often entered restaurants in search of rivals, shooting
indiscriminately and often killing innocent people.

Last year, as he was beginning to consolidate his power, Munoz was
shot to death.

According to the DEA, Carrillo Fuentes' brother Vicente is now one of
perhaps three leaders of the cartel.

While still one of the most powerful drug-trafficking organizations in
Mexico, officials believe the cartel has lost some of its influence.

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico -- Since authorities began dismantling the
notorious Cali and Medellin drug cartels of Colombia in the late
1980s, drug barons have learned to shun the spotlight, law-enforcement
officials say.

Last week, however, one of the most powerful drug-running
organizations in Mexico, the so-called Juarez cartel, grabbed
headlines around the world, as Mexican and U.S. investigators
excavated at least four clandestine graves believed to contain the
remains of scores of people who apparently died at the hands of the
ruthless organization.

While nobody expected the publicity and the legion of Mexican and
American federal agents who descended on the city to affect the flow
of drugs into the U.S., analysts said it would force the drug lords to
re-evaluate their tactics.

"The media attention from outsiders will make life for the traffickers
like living in a fish bowl," said Luis Plascencia, associate director
of the Tomas Rivera Policy Institute at the University of Texas in
Austin.

"The key actors will say, `We need to slow down.' "

Investigators said they have unearthed at least six bodies since
Monday in a desert ranch outside the city. According to an FBI
informant, the number of victims could total more than 100, including
several Americans.

As the story unfolded, it helped shed light on the international drug
trade--a world of greed, corruption, betrayal and murder.

As early as the mid-1970s, U.S. law-enforcement officials, who were
accustomed to nabbing marijuana smugglers, began confiscating small
amounts of cocaine along the Texas-Mexican border.

Over the years, the loads got larger, and by the early 1980s, after
American drug agents began to crack down on Caribbean smuggling routes
from Colombia to south Florida, investigators discovered that the
Colombians had teamed up with Mexicans to get their cocaine to the
lucrative U.S. market.

Ciudad Juarez, a gritty city of 1.2 million people across the Rio
Grande from El Paso, Texas, has long been a den of vice and smuggling
and offered Colombian dealers established smuggling routes into the
U.S.

It also offered a notoriously corrupt federal police commander, Rafael
Aguilar Guajardo, who worked for the Mexican equivalent of the FBI.

According to American law-enforcement officials and local authorities
familiar with the Juarez organization, Aguilar would shake down drug
traffickers operating in the city. That was before the traffickers
became more powerful than the police.

In the mid-1980s, with America's taste for cocaine growing, Aguilar
resigned his post and consolidated various factions of Mexican drug
traffickers, including his brother-in-law, businessman Rafael Munoz
Talavera.

Together, they created the Juarez cartel, which today uses Chicago as
one of its main cocaine distribution points.

Within years, Aguilar and Munoz bribed and killed their way to the
top.

In 1989, in a Los Angeles warehouse, authorities confiscated 21 tons
of cocaine, the largest seizure ever. The shipment was linked to Munoz.

A former U.S. government official with knowledge of the organization
said the group grew like any successful enterprise.

"Like a regular business, business grows, the number of employees
increases, and your influence increases," he said. "Instead of being a
mom and pop store, you have become a corporation."

While the Mexican government jailed Munoz in connection with the Los
Angeles seizure, another trafficker, Amado Carrillo Fuentes, became
the cartel's undisputed leader.

He got the job by ordering the assassination of Aguilar in
1993.

Under Carrillo Fuentes, the Juarez cartel flourished like never
before, raking in an estimated $200 million each week. Carrillo
Fuentes came to be known as "The Lord of the Skies," for his use of
large aircraft to move tons of cocaine from Colombia to the
U.S.-Mexico border.

Robert Castillo, the Drug Enforcement Administration agent in charge
of the El Paso office, said the Colombians then began paying the
Mexicans with drugs, instead of cash, to smuggle drugs into the U.S.

The Mexicans, he said, can set their own price.

With his billion-dollar empire, Carrillo Fuentes' influence reached
the highest levels of the Mexican government.

In February 1997, the nation's drug czar, Army Gen. Jesus Gutierrez
Rebollo, was arrested on charges of providing protection for the
Juarez cartel in exchange for money, houses and expensive cars. He is
serving a lengthy prison term.

In 1996, after Munoz was cleared of the charges against him, he
launched a gang war against Carrillo Fuentes for control of the
organization, according to Travis Kuykendall, a former DEA agent in El
Paso.

Then in July 1997, Carrillo Fuentes died during plastic surgery in a
clinic in Mexico City while reportedly trying to change his appearance.

Afterward, a bloody power struggle for control of the cartel ensued,
leaving dozens dead in Juarez.

Cartel hitmen often entered restaurants in search of rivals, shooting
indiscriminately and often killing innocent people.

Last year, as he was beginning to consolidate his power, Munoz was
shot to death.

According to the DEA, Carrillo Fuentes' brother Vicente is now one of
perhaps three leaders of the cartel.

While still one of the most powerful drug-trafficking organizations in
Mexico, officials believe the cartel has lost some of its influence.