Source:Orange County Registernews,page 25
Contact:(letters@link.freedom.com)

CRIME:A death threat was placed to the FBI while the drug czar was in Texas
on his tour of the border.

By DANA CALVO The Associated Press

SAN DIEGOSecurity for U.S. drugpolicy chief Gen. Barry McCaffrey was
beefed up Thursday after he received a death threat from a man claiming
to be with Mexico's largest drug cartel,The associated Press has learned.

The call was placed to the FBI on Tuesday while McCaffrey was in Laredo,
Texas on his tour of the southwest border.

While McCaffrey receives "hate mail like any other public official," one of
the sources said, "this was the first call of this caliber from a
drugtrafficking organization targeting him."

Sources told the AP that security officials asked McCaffrey to curtail a
scheduled visit Thursday to neighboring Tijuana, but he refused. He told
them he would not be intimidated.

The caller, who spoke in Spanish, told the FBI field office in Houston that
the murder would be carried out with a missile attack. FBI officials
refused to comment.

U.S. officials notified Mexican authorities, and both were providing
additional security for McCaffrey. Additional U.S. marshals were assigned
to McCaffrey's security detail since the threat, one of the sources said.

"I think the security arrangements have been firstrate, and we vary much
appreciate that the Mexican have taken firstrate precautions," McCaffrey
said. "I'm glad I'm coming on the border to talk to authorities on both
sides."

The caller said he was associated with the cartel formerly run by Amado
Carrillo Fuentes. Carrillo, known as "Lord of the Skies" because he used
jets to ship massive loads of cocaine to the U.S.Mexico border, died July
e after complications from plastic surgery.

Mexican and U.S. officials have been concerned about competing drug
organizations filling the power vacuum. Carrillo's operation raked in tens
of millions of dollars weekly, according to Mexican lawenforcement officials.

At least 11 people have been killed in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, in what is
believed to be drugrelated violence since C arrillo's death.

"The concurrence of violence associated with this change of succession,
which is (seen) not only in their murdering each other in large numbers,"
McCaffrey said at a news conference Thursday, "but they're also
unfortunately attacking U.S. and Mexican law enforcement."

One of Carrillo's fiercest competitors is the Arellano Felix drug
organization, based in Tijuana. The gang is believed responsible for a
series of highprofile assassinations of Mexican lawenforcement officials.

An alleged Arellano gunman threatened to arrange the killing of a U.S.
prosecutor who is seeking his extradition to Mexico, according to court
documents.