DEA AGENTS CAUGHT IN STANDOFF

The United States said yesterday that two of its anti-drug agents were
surrounded by gunmen, apparently including Mexican state policemen, two
weeks ago in a standoff in a border town.

A spokesman for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration said Tamaulipas
state policemen appeared to have been among the gunmen that chased and
surrounded the U.S. agents with AK-47 rifles in downtown Matamoros on Nov. 9.

The suspected drug traffickers demanded the handover of a Mexican informant
working with the U.S. agents. The anti-drug officials refused and talked
their way out of the 20-minute standoff.

The incident - first reported by the New York Times yesterday - was one of
the most serious since a DEA agent, Enrique Camarena, was tortured to death
in Mexico in March 1985.

"As in the Camarena case, Mexican state police officials appear to have
been involved in this incident," the DEA said in a statement. "The DEA is
concerned about the safety of our agents."