COPS RUSH TIJUANA HOUSE TO END 3-HOUR GUNBATTLE

6 Bodies Found Inside With Suspects

TIJUANA - Automatic weapons rattled, neighbors huddled low in their
locked homes and uniformed preschoolers were hustled to safety as
heavily armed law enforcement agents stormed a house yesterday in a
middle-class neighborhood here and found the bodies of six people
believed to be victims of the Arellano Felix drug cartel.

Mexican authorities announced last night at a news conference that
four people were in custody, including a Tijuana police officer and a
man who identified himself as a member of the Baja California
ministerial police.

The suspects are members of a cell of the notoriously violent cartel,
said Edgar Millan, a top official with Mexico's federal Public
Security Secretariat. While the drug gang is believed to have lost
its lock on the region's drug trade in recent years, it remains active.

The gunbattle was part of a daunting spike in regional violence in
recent weeks. Some analysts say the spate of killings is an
indication that drug cartels and kidnap gangs feel threatened by the
federal, state and municipal governments' vow to work together
against organized crime. Others say it is a sign of a power struggle
as the Arellano Felix cartel loses its grip.

"The Mexican state will not take one step backward in its frontal
battle against organized crime," Millan said. Two of the suspects
were identified as Carlos Alberto Espinoza Vega and Roman Gamez
Osuna, both found inside the house. Two other suspects found shooting
at the federal and state officers were detained outside.

It wasn't made clear what role they played in the Arellano Felix organization.

Millan said the police investigation had just begun. He was
accompanied at the news conference by Rommel Moreno Manjarrez, Baja
California's attorney general; Daniel de la Rosa Anaya, the state
secretary of public safety; and Gen. German Redondo Azuara, commander
of the second military zone.

The clash began after members of Mexico's Federal Preventive Police
approached the large brick house on a shady residential street as
part of an investigation and met with gunfire as they tried to enter.

Inside the house they found six male victims, gagged and blindfolded
and shot in the head. Millan said the Baja California Attorney
General's Office is helping identify the victims, determine whether
they had been kidnapped, and pinpoint the time of death.

Three members of the Federal Preventive Police and one municipal
police officer were injured in the confrontation.

The operation involved federal, state and municipal police, as well
as the military. Hours after the gunshots stopped, dozens of masked
police officers continued to swarm the cordoned-off block in the
central La Mesa district.

"Here, there are no levels of government," said Millan, the
designated spokesman for the operation. "It's a unified force to
fight organized crime."

Later in the afternoon, bomb threats forced the evacuation of City
Hall for about an hour, a city spokesman said.

Residents of Fraccionamiento Cortez saw their streets turn into a
battleground, a rare scene even in a city plagued in recent years by
drug-related violence. As a police helicopter hovered, radio and
television news programs broadcast warnings that residents should
stay indoors and away from windows. As gunshots sounded, heavily
armed agents carried and led uniformed preschoolers to safety. Some
of the children covered their ears and some cried.

A 43-year-old housewife said she had stepped out to buy some milk,
leaving her 12-year-old son alone at home, when she heard the shots.
"We no longer feel exempt," she said. "It's all different from now on."

A 60-year-old retiree said his granddaughter was in a junior high
school three blocks away when the shooting occurred. He said he
approved of strong government measures. "It's not the Tijuana that we
knew before," he said. "But we hope that it can be that way again."

The neighbors did not give their names.