U.S. HAS LOST DRUG WAR, MEXICAN CARTEL SUSPECT SAYS

ALMOLOYA DE JUAREZ, Mexico -- Benjamin Arellano Felix, the man accused of
running Mexico's most ruthless drug cartel, said the United States has
already lost its war on drugs and that violent trafficking gangs will
thrive as long as Americans keep buying marijuana, cocaine and heroin.

"It would stop being a business if the United States didn't want drugs,"
Arellano said Tuesday during a rare interview in the La Palma
maximum-security federal prison here, where Mexican authorities hope to
keep him for life.

Most Latin Americans, from presidents to taxi drivers, say that U.S. demand
is responsible for the drug trade.

U.S. and Mexican officials say Arellano, 48, heads the Tijuana-based cartel
bearing his family name, which has moved billions of dollars worth of
Mexican and Colombian drugs into the United States while committing some of
the most vicious killings. But they also acknowledge that since his arrest
in March, there has been no slowdown in the flow of drugs.

"They talk about a war against the Arellano brothers," said Arellano, who
eluded the Mexican police and military, the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration and the FBI for more than a decade. "They haven't won. I'm
here, and nothing has changed.

"When something is out of reach, it is more interesting to people," he
said. "If drugs were like cigarettes or alcohol, there wouldn't be a black
market. It would put an end to the capos."