MEXICAN COURT CLEARS DRUG CARTEL BOSS OF 1993 KILLING OF CARDINAL

MEXICO CITY - A federal court today cleared Benjamin Arellano Felix, the
reputed boss of Mexico's biggest drug cartel, of charges that he staged a
1993 gun battle that killed a Roman Catholic cardinal.

The decision releases Mr. Arellano, 48, from responsibility for a crime
that outraged this devoutly Catholic nation. It also dims hopes that
Mexican officials will win justice in the assassination of Cardinal Juan
Jesus Posadas Ocampo.

Mr. Arellano's arrest by Mexican officials in March was considered a major
victory against drug trafficking. Since then, courts have cleared Mr.
Arellano in three of the six indictments filed by Mexican prosecutors.

A spokeswoman for Mexico's attorney general, however, pointed out that the
most serious charges, which include drug trafficking and organized crime,
are still pending. American officials have said that they have what one
called a "slam-dunk case" against Mr. Arellano.

"We have a strong indictment up here," said Donald J. Thornhill Jr., a
spokesman for the Drug Enforcement Agency in San Diego. "We are just
looking forward to getting our hands on him."

But of all the charges against him, Mr. Arellano had seemed most adamant
about his innocence in the assassination of Cardinal Posadas, who was
killed by gunfire outside the Guadalajara airport. Investigators charged
that gunmen sent by Mr. Arellano confused the cardinal's car with that of a
rival.

"He is mortified about being accused of killing the cardinal," Americo
Delgado, Mr. Arellano's lawyer, said of his client, who is being held at a
maximum-security prison outside Mexico City. "He is a committed Catholic."

Indeed, in recent interviews from jail with Mexican and American reporters,
Mr. Arellano has said that he met with church officials after Cardinal
Posadas's assassination in an effort to clear his name.

In an interview with The Washington Post, Mr. Arellano said that he had
sent a message to Mexico's former President Carlos Salinas de Gortari,
offering to turn himself in.

Mr. Arellano led the criminal operations of the most feared drug gang in
Mexico. The gang, based in Tijuana and run by six Arellano Felix brothers,
used hundreds of killings and uncounted millions in bribes to win control
of most of Mexico's border with southern California.

Drug agency reports say the cartel carried out 300 murders over the last
decade and smuggled hundreds of tons of cocaine and heroin into the United
States.

The arrest of Mr. Arellano and the presumed death earlier this year of his
brother Ramon, 37, considered the cartel's murderous enforcer, dealt a
devastating blow to the cartel. Still, it continues to operate.