CARTELS CONTINUE TO FIGHT FOR CONTROL OF JUAREZ DRUG TRADE

EL PASO -- The violence sparked by a turf war between the Sinaloa and
Juarez cartels is not nearing its end, U.S. officials in El Paso said.

Countering a recent media report, U.S. Rep. Ciro Rodriguez, D-Texas,
said Friday that he does not believe the Sinaloa cartel now controls
all of Juarez's drug market.

The Associated Press on Friday reported anonymous U.S. intelligence
sources saying Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, who leads the Sinaloa
cartel, is winning Mexico's drug war. The story does not say the
Sinaloa cartel is winning over Mexico's federal forces, but over
Vicente Carrillo Fuentes' Juarez cartel.

FBI spokeswoman Andrea Simmons said the Sinaloa cartel appears to have
control of the drug trade.

"A majority of the drugs that are coming to the United States are from
the Sinaloa cartel," she said.

But Simmons said the brutal attacks between the gangs working for the
rival cartels continue.

FBI's evaluation of the trafficking routes is based on intelligence
gathered in cases worked in the U.S. and testimonials from
confidential informants helping to build those cases, Simmons said.

Simmons said FBI officials could speak only on behalf of the
activities on the U.S. side.

However, Drug Enforcement Administration officials in El Paso said the
Sinaloa's triumph over the trafficking routes around Juarez is not
definite.

"Our intelligence does not indicate that the Sinaloa cartel has taken
over the Juarez corridor," said Carmen Coutino, DEA
spokeswoman.

"However, they are making serious attempts to do so."

Mexico's federal police Chief Facundo Rosas said the theory that the
Sinaloa cartel was taking over the Juarez market is a
presupposition.

"We are not certain that is going on," he said Friday at a Juarez news
conference.

U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, did not have any comment on the
change of dynamics between these two cartels.

Close to 4,900 people have been killed since 2008 in the Juarez area.
Most of the murders are carried out by drug gangs working for the
Sinaloa and Juarez cartels.

People in Mexico have accused President Felipe Calderon of not going
after the Sinaloa cartel as he has the Juarez, Gulf and La Familia
cartels in Michoacan. Calderon began fighting organized crime soon
after taking office in December 2006.

Juarez police have arrested more Aztecas gang members, who work for
the Juarez cartel, than members of any other gang.

In El Paso, the Aztecas gang's brother organization, Barrio Azteca,
was the focus of one of the largest law enforcement operations by the
FBI and DEA. Federal agents arrested at least 54 gang members. They
were looking for information into the March 13 killings in Juarez of
three people with ties to the U.S. Consulate.

Of the high-profile arrests made in 2009, three were of members of the
Sinaloa cartel, including Vicente Zambada Niebla. He is the son of
well-known and at-large drug trafficker Ismael Zambada. Zambada Niebla
was extradited to the United States and is now facing drug-trafficking
charges in Chicago. Also in 2009, police arrested Vicente Carrillo
Leyva, the son of former Juarez cartel leader Amado Carrillo Fuentes.

Federal police said they arrested four gang members working for the
Sinaloa cartel Thursday. The four hit men, in their 20s, belonged to
the Artists Assassins gang. Police have accused them of killing at
least three people.

Police identified the men as Constantino "El Tino" Lopez Zarate, 28;
Alberto "El Chilo" Barran Martinez, 25; Cesar Noe "Bird" Alvarado
Rosales, 22; and Carlos "Jhony" Perez Perez, 23.

Lopez Zarate was deported to Mexico in 2007. Before he joined the
Artists Assassins gang, he belonged to the Surenos, a Mexican-American
street gang present in various U.S. cities.

Besides the three killings by the gang members, five people were
murdered in attacks on Thursday and Friday in Juarez.