LATE DRUG FIGURE'S DOCTOR REPORTEDLY GETS US PROTECTION

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States has given refuge to a doctor
involved in a botched plastic surgery operation on a Mexican drug figure
who died afterward, The Washington Post reported yesterday.

Pedro Rincon and his family were clandestinely taken to the United States
last November and put under the witness protection program, US officials
told the newspaper.

Amado Carrillo Fuentes - nicknamed ''The Lord of the Skies'' for his
ability to move cocaine in retired jetliners - died following major plastic
surgery in July 1997.

Two other doctors involved in the operation were tortured and killed and
their bodies stuffed into concrete-filled steel drums, the Post said.

Rincon turned himself into Mexican police and asked for protection. The
Mexican government offered to turn him over to US intelligence agencies,
and Rincon accepted, the Post said.

According to the newspaper, US sources familiar with Rincon's statements
said he maintained that Carrillo's death was the result of medical failures
and that Carrillo had hepatitis when they operated.

Mexican officials say Carrillo's death was part of a plot by rival drug
gangs or enemies within his organization, the Post said.