GUNMEN KILL 6 IN TIJUANA; PAPER BLAMES WARRING DRUG GANGS

MEXICO CITY - Gunmen killed six people in the raucous border city of
Tijuana early Tuesday, less than a month after 20 people were murdered near
the neighboring city of Ensenada.

The latest slayings occurred about 3 a.m. in El Pipila, a poor neighborhood
on Tijuana's southern edge, police said. The motive wasn't immediately
clear, Mexican authorities said.

But Tijuana's El Mexicano newspaper blamed a turf war between heroin
trafficking gangs. Whatever the cause, drug-trade experts say, similar
warring along the border and in other spots will probably rage on, at least
for now.

"When a top godfather dies or gets knocked off and there's no succession
planned, then you have a bloodbath. You have to wait and see who survives
and comes out on top," said Phil Jordan, former director of the El Paso
Intelligence Center, jointly run by the Drug Enforcement Administration,
the FBI and other agencies.

The kingpin he's referring to is the late Amado Carrillo Fuentes, the
reputed czar of Mexican drug trafficking who died after plastic surgery in
July 1997 in Mexico City. Since Mr. Carrillo's death, dozens of people have
been murdered in Tijuana, Ciudad Juarez and other border towns.

"There was no succession after Amado died," Mr. Jordan said. Or if there
was, he said, not all drug bosses agreed with it.

Some law enforcement officials contend that Mr. Carrillo's brother,
Vicente, took over his drug organization. Vicente Carrillo's indictment on
U.S. drug charges was announced last week in El Paso.

Other officials say the Arellano Felix drug gang and others are fighting
for Amado Carrillo's old territory, which included the Ciudad Juarez-El
Paso corridor.

Mr. Jordan and other American drug-trade experts say the dispute over turf
may have been behind the Sept. 17 murders of 19 members of a reputed
trafficker's family in El Sauzal, near Ensenada. The target of the attack,
Fermin Castro, died of his wounds Oct. 2.

Mexican authorities allege that Mr. Castro worked for the Arellano Felix
gang, which has traditionally been based in Tijuana. Mr. Castro's relatives
deny the charge.

Mexican authorities say they're not sure what triggered the massacre.
Drug-related killings in Mexico often remain unsolved as the victims pile
up. Just a few weeks after the El Sauzal murders, three more people were
killed in Tijuana. The victims - whose bodies showed signs of torture -
died of multiple gunshot wounds. No one has been arrested in that case,
police say.

After Tuesday's shootings, two people were detained and a rifle and
ammunition were seized. But it's not certain that the two suspects will be
charged, police said.

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski