MEXICAN DRUG 'GODFATHER' FOUND SLAIN

An alleged godfather of the Mexican drug trade was executed and his
body abandoned near the Texas border, prompting fears of a blood bath
between rival Mexican drug groups, officials said Friday.

U.S officials called Rafael Munoz Talavera, 45, a pioneer of the
Mexico-to-U.S. cocaine trade.They had earlier predicted he would
replace the country's No. 1 trafficker, Amando Carrillo Fuentes, who
died in July 1997 following plastic surgery.

Authorities discovered Munoz Talavera's body at dawn Thursday, slumped
in the back seat of a 1985 Jeep Cherokee that was parked in a
middle-class neighborhood of Ciudad Juarez, which borders Texas. He
had been shot four times, and his hands were bound, said a spokesman
for the state prosecutor's office in Chihuahua.

"I don't think there's been a larger drug trafficker documented - at
least in terms of the actual seizure of cocaine or the actual
documented deliveries that he accomplished," said Assistant U.S.
Attorney Glenn MacTaggart in San Antonio, Texas.

MacTaggart unsuccessfully sought Munoz Talavera's extradition to the
United States to stand trial on drug charges. He said the Mexican had
imported 200 tons of cocaine in 1988-89, including a 21 ton shipment
discovered in a warehouse in the Los Angeles suburb of Sylmar, the
biggest U.S. drug seizure ever.

Munoz Talavera was convicted of drug charges and served about 2 1/2
years but was released on appeal in 1996. Since Carrillo Fuentes'
death in July 1997, U.S. and Mexican officials say Munoz Talavera had
been trying to take over the Juarez-based drug organization.

More than 65 people have been killed in Ciudad Juarez in fighting
among drug gangs since Carrillo Fuentes' death. However, Munoz
Talavera was the first major figure among them.

Phil Jordan, former head of the El Paso Intelligence Center, a U.S.
government anti-narcotics facility, predicted the slaying would prompt
more violence in drug centers like Ciudad Juarez and Tijuana.

Checked-by: Patrick Henry