WANTED MEXICAN TRAFFICKER IS KILLED

MEXICO CITY-Ignacio "Nacho" Coronel, a key figure in the Sinaloa
Cartel, Mexico's most powerful drug-dealing organization was gunned
down in a battle with soldiers Thursday night, the Mexican army said.

The death of Mr. Coronel is a major victory for Mexico's beleaguered
president Felipe Calderon. Since assuming power in 2006, Mr. Calderon
has sent some 45,000 Mexican soldiers to retake large areas of the
country controlled by powerful drug cartels. More than 26,000 people
have died in drug-related violence, and Mr. Calderon has suffered a
heavy political price as weary Mexicans have questioned his policies.

Mr. Coronel's death deals a blow to the Sinaloa cartel, which is led
by Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, who has been a fugitive since escaping
from a top security prison in 2000. Critics of Mr. Calderon's campaign
have said Mr. Guzman appeared to be untouchable, and that the
government's antidrug campaign seemed to be aimed at rivals of the
Sinaloa cartel. Some have accused Mr. Calderon's government of being
allied with Mr. Guzman, an accusation the government has vehemently
and repeatedly denied.

In a news conference, Gen. Edgar Ruiz Villegas said Mr. Coronel opened
fire on soldiers as they were closing in on a safehouse in Zapopan, a
wealthy suburb of the western city of Guadalajara. "Nacho Coronel
tried to escape and fired on military personnel, killing one soldier
and wounding another," Gen. Ruiz Villegas told reporters.

Known as the "King of Crystal," Mr. Coronel was deeply involved in the
production of methamphetamines. He was wanted in the U.S., where the
Federal Bureau of Investigation had offered a $5 million reward for
information leading to his arrest. The FBI said he was believed to be
"the forerunner in producing massive amounts of methamphetamine in
clandestine laboratories in Mexico, then smuggling it into the U.S."

Last year, the U.S. Department of Justice unsealed 12 indictments that
accused Mr. Coronel, Mr. Guzman and 42 others of importing nearly 200
metric tons of cocaine and large amounts of heroin into the U.S, and
returning about $5.8 billion into Mexico in cash proceeds from drug
sales in the U.S. and Canada.

Alberto Islas, a Mexico City-based security consultant said Mr.
Coronel was probably Mexico's "most sophisticated drug dealer in terms
of logistics and money laundering." Mr. Islas predicted there could be
a momentary "downward dip" in supplies of methamphetamines to the U.S.
as a result of Mr. Coronel's death.

Mr. Coronel's death is the biggest blow against drug traffickers since
Arturo Beltran Leyva, a former partner turned rival of Mr. Guzman, and
six of his bodyguards were killed in a Dec. 16 raid by Mexican marines
in the central city of Cuernavaca.

During Thursday's raid, soldiers also arrested Francisco Quinonez.
Gen. Ruiz Villegas said Mr. Quinonez was Mr. Coronel's right-hand man
and was the only one allowed to accompany him to his mansion.

Mr. Coronel was born in the northern state of Durango, and became a
key lieutenant of Amado Carrillo Fuentes, the so-called "Lord of the
Skies" and leader of the Juarez drug cartel who died in 1997 after
undergoing plastic surgery to change his identity in Mexico City. Gen.
Ruiz Villegas said Mr. Coronel controlled the Pacific drug trafficking
routes through the states of Jalisco, Colima and parts of Michoacan.

Meanwhile in a sign of growing concern over border violence, the U.S.
embassy in Mexico City announced Thursday night that it would close
the U.S.consulate in the city of Ciudad Juarez, across the border from
El Paso, Texas, beginning Friday while it conducted a security review.
The embassy said the consulate would remain closed "until the security
review is completed."

Ciudad Juarez is home to some 300 maquiladoras, or assembly plants,
which assemble manufactured products for export to the U.S. But the
city, a key center for commerce with the U.S., has become the
bloodiest battlefield in Mexico's drug war. The closing of the
consulate comes after a U.S. employee of the consulate, her husband
and a Mexican with ties to the consulate were killed in March when
gunmen fired on their cars after they had left a children's party.