MEXICAN ACCUSED OF DRUG TRAFFICKING NABBED

MEXICO CITY - One of Mexico's most-wanted drug-trafficking suspects
was captured without a shot fired over the weekend, authorities said
Monday, the latest in a series of high-profile arrests by Mexican law
enforcement using intelligence supplied by U.S. anti-narcotics agents.

The arrest of Gilberto Higuera Guerrero at a safe house in Mexicali on
Sunday morning is a major victory in President Vicente Fox's campaign
against Mexico's major drug cartels. Leaders in each of the four
largest drug cartels have been arrested in recent months, although
officials say the flow of drugs through Mexico into the United States
probably has not receded.

It is also the latest example of the growing cooperation between U.S.
and Mexican law enforcement, which have worked in tandem to pull off
several recent captures. American officials say they are increasingly
impressed with the willingness of Mexican anti-drug forces to act on
U.S. surveillance information, a willingness not always evident in the
past.

Higuera was among 12 alleged members of the Arellano Félix smuggling
gang, also known as the Tijuana cartel, who were indicted on
drug-trafficking charges in federal court in San Diego in July 2003.
The United States had offered a $2 million reward for his capture. The
gang's two alleged leaders, Eduardo and Javier Arellano Félix, are
still at large.

The Tijuana cartel once controlled the flow of a major portion of the
cocaine and heroin into the United States and is thought to be
responsible for dozens of slayings, including those of two Tijuana
police chiefs, several state and federal prosecutors and a host of
police officers since taking over the Baja California smuggling
corridor in the 1980s.

That control has weakened in recent years as rival gangs have
encroached on the group's territory, causing a bloody struggle for
control. The decline has gathered force since Benjamin Arellano Félix,
the cartel's alleged capo, was captured in March 2002.

The gang is being investigated for possible involvement in the killing
in June of Francisco Ortiz Franco, an editor with the crusading Zeta
weekly newspaper of Tijuana who wrote articles describing the cartel's
inner workings.

At a news conference Monday, Mexican Attorney General Rafael Macedo de
la Concha said Higuera oversaw the shipment of half the cocaine and
heroin that crossed into the United States over its southern border, a
figure that one U.S. official said he could not confirm.

The arrest comes as the major cartels are reorganizing and forming new
alliances in the face of increased government pressure, Mexican
officials say.

Until last year, Mexican authorities allege, Higuera was the Arellano
Félix organization's top operations man in the Mexicali area and
oversaw the shipment of huge volumes of drugs via tunnels, vehicles or
``mules'' -- individuals who cross into the United States on foot.

On Monday, the attorney general said Higuera had changed allegiance
sometime last year, defecting to the Sinaloa-based cartel believed
controlled by Ismael ``El Mayo'' Zambada, an alleged trafficker who
reportedly has tried to usurp control of the Baja California drug
smuggling ``platform.''

A U.S. government source who asked not to be named said only that it
was ``possible'' that Higuera crossed over to the rival gang, and
added that it was unclear at this point how much of overall drug
traffic the suspect might have overseen.

Macedo acknowledged American help in finding Higuera and said the
United States has requested the suspect's extradition. But he said
Higuera must face Mexican charges first.

Whichever cartel he belongs to, Higuera is viewed by Mexican and U.S.
law enforcement as one of Baja California's top traffickers, after the
two fugitive Arellano Félix brothers and Gustavo Rivera Martínez. The
June arrests of Efrain Pérez and Jorge Aureliano Félix, believed to be
top Tijuana cartel functionaries, also were lauded by U.S. officials
as major victories in the anti-drug effort.