MEXICO MAY ARREST DRUG LORD LAWYER OVER THREAT

MEXICO CITY, (Reuters) - Mexican authorities said Wednesday they might jail
a drug lord's lawyer after the attorney warned prosecutors their case
against his client in the murder of a television star would become a "living
hell."

Mexico City judicial police chief Mauricio Tornero said the remarks by
attorney Everardo Rojas Contreras, representing jailed drug baron Luis
Amezcua, had been interpreted as a death threat against officials in the
Mexico City attorney general's office.

"Nobody is above the law. Neither personalities nor fortunes can intimidate
us," Tornero told reporters in comments carried by the Televisa television
network and government news agency Notimex.

Mexico City attorney general Samuel Del Villar last week blamed Luis
Amezcua, one of the "Kings of Methamphetamines" accused by U.S. authorities
of smuggling massive amounts of speed into the United States, for ordering
the slaying of television variety host Francisco "Paco" Stanley on June 7.

Del Villar said Amezcua ordered the hit from jail because Stanley owed him
large amounts of money for drugs.

After prosecutors filed charges, Amezcua lawyer Rojas Contreras said: "The
case will become a living hell for prosecutor Samuel del Villar." He also
delivered a warning to prosecutor Victor Carranca Burguet, which Tornero
said was taken as a death threat.

The Stanley murder, in broad daylight on a main Mexico City thoroughfare,
stunned Mexicans already reeling from a crime wave that followed the
1994-1995 peso crash which cost millions their jobs.

The case has since enthralled the public with revelations of drug ties,
seething jealousies and cocaine use in the show business world.

Stanley's on-screen sidekick, Mario Bezares, his driver, an aide, a
suspected hitman and a showgirl have also been arrested in connection with
the assassination.