DRUGS TAINT MEXICAN CITY

We will never be able to guard the border completely. Not even with
the best technology from the gulf war.

International problem:Battle for control of cartels raises havoc on
both sides of the border.

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico -- The banner headline splashed across the front
page of a local newspaper blared, ``Another two found in the trunk of
a car.''

The victims, both men, had been strangled, each found with a green
cord tied around his neck.

The article mentioned a possible motive: that it was a drug-related
hit.

But residents of Ciudad Juarez could have guessed
that.

In fact, many have become inured to the drug-related violence that has
changed their city, and the way of life of its more than 1 million
residents.

This city, just across from El Paso, Texas, is home to arguably the
most powerful drug-running organization in the world, the Juarez
cartel.

With the death of its leader last year, a full-scale drug war has
erupted, with all the trappings: gangland-style murder. Official
corruption. Increased domestic drug use. And a sullied international
reputation.

``This is a city where anarchy reigns,'' says a local newspaper
editor.

Billions of dollars are at stake. The U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration estimates $200 million a week flows through the hands
of Juarez-area drug dealers. Most of it, officials say, comes from
helping cocaine move from Colombia across the U.S. border.

A struggle has broken out over control of the trade. In Ciudad
Juarez, cartel hitmen have entered restaurants in search of their
enemies, shooting indiscriminately and killing bystanders.

Last month in Ensenada, Baja California, 19 people were massacred. The
victims included women and children. Both Mexican and U.S. officials
say the massacre was a drug-related revenge killing. The first arrests
in that case were made this week, when three members of a gang that
allegedly worked for Ramon Arellano-Felix were taken into custody
by Mexican police. Police say the gang had set out to settle a drug
feud with Ferm(acu)n Castro, an alleged small-time narcotics dealer
who was among the victims.

As a result of such bloodletting, citizens of Ciudad Juarez are
changing the way they live, choosing to stay at home, for example, or
avoid crossing the border for entertainment.

``I don't go out at all,'' said Lucia Hernandez, 20, who works at
one of the maquiladoras, or factories, that dot the border.

``I don't like Ciudad Juarez. But I came here to work, not to
play.''

A newspaper reporter said he no longer takes his family
out.

``Here, you go out to dinner, to play, you know something can
happen,'' said the journalist, who requested anonymity because he says
he has received death threats for reporting on drugs and corruption.

Hands tied, cops say

To hear police officers tell it, there is not much they can do.
Despite an army of Mexican and U.S. law enforcement officials
stationed along the border, authorities from both countries say their
actions are doing little to stem the flow of drugs into the United
States.

Javier M. Benavides, the city's newly appointed police chief, until
recently was helping to lead the charge in the drug war nationally as
a federal field commander.

``We will never be able to guard the border completely. Not even with
the best technology from the gulf war,'' Benavides said. ``You can
bring in the Marines. You can put submarines in the Rio Grande.''

But, he added, ``So long as there is demand, there will be a

problem.''

U.S. officials agree, but say official corruption in Mexico still
presents a major obstacle to effective law enforcement.

In places such as Ciudad Juarez, drug barons generally operate with
impunity. The now-deceased leader of the Juarez cartel, Amado
Carrillo Fuentes, reportedly was spotted in town last year
campaigning with a politician.

U.S. law enforcement officials say they learned a bitter lesson last
year, after Mexico's top drug fighter, Gen. Jesus Gutierrez
Rebollo, was arrested on charges of protecting the Carrillo
organization in exchange for money, cars and a luxury apartment.

Praise from U.S.

Gen. Barry McCaffrey, Gutierrez's U.S. counterpart, had lavished
Gutierrez with praise in the days before his arrest. Gutierrez is
now in prison.

Last year, the Juarez cartel lost Carrillo, once described by the
DEA as the world's most powerful drug chieftain, to plastic surgery
gone awry. Carrillo, who apparently underwent the procedure to
disguise his identity, did not survive the lengthy operation, possibly
because of a reaction between the drugs used during surgery and the
cocaine in his system.

His death, according to authorities, prompted the latest blood bath in
the city. The ensuing yearlong power struggle has left more than 50
people dead.

With Carrillo no longer in the way, authorities say the Tijuana
cartel, run by the Arellano-Felix brothers, apparently has tried to
push into the Juarez cartel's territory. Officials believe that
after Carrillo's death in a women's clinic in Mexico City on July 4,
1997, the Tijuana group banded with the Ciudad Juarez-based
narcotrafficker, Rafael Munoz Talavera.

Munoz Talavera was making a run at the leadership of the Juarez
cartel until he was shot to death about a month ago in Ciudad Juarez.

During his reign, authorities say Carrillo helped keep the peace in
this city, preferring negotiations or bribery to violence in order to
settle disputes.

Officials believe that his younger brother, Vicente Carrillo Fuentes,
36, has taken over control of the organization. The younger Carrillo,
described by law enforcement officials as a vicious boss, was indicted
in the United States this month on drug-trafficking charges. He
remains at large.

Drug flow continues

In the 15 months since the death of Amado Carrillo Fuentes, the drug
flow into the United States has not skipped a beat, said Robert
Castillo, special agent in charge of the El Paso field division of the
Drug Enforcement Administration.

Trouble began brewing in Mexico early in this decade when the
Colombians, facing increased pressure from U.S. interdiction efforts
in the Caribbean, switched cocaine-trafficking routes to Mexico.

The State Department estimates annual drug trafficking in Mexico
yields $27 billion to $30 billion in revenue.

Castillo said the stakes in Mexico are higher now because unlike the
old days, when the Colombians paid the Mexicans in cash to smuggle the
drugs into the United States, they now pay them with drugs. The
Mexicans, he said, ``can set their own price.''

Checked-by: Rich O'Grady