OFFICIALS EXPECT NEW LEADERS IN DRUG TRADE

MEXICO CITY -- A new breed of crime leaders seems to be taking over
Mexico's drug trade as the country's biggest gang reorganizes itself, U.S.
and Mexican investigators say. In contrast to the brutal and flamboyant
kingpins of the past, the new bosses are said to be keen on building
alliances among gangs, delegating some of their organizations'
responsibilities to key underlings and staying out of the limelight.

The result likely will be a multibillion-dollar illicit industry that's
less violent -- but more efficient and even harder to stop, officials say.

"The era of the big drug lord is over," said Mario Estuardo Bermudez,
Mexico's top anti-drug prosecutor. "Instead of one leader, they now build
an automated organization with regional managers who can cover more
territory and create zones of influence in practically the whole country."

The White House estimates that about half of the $65 billion in narcotics
that Americans buy each year come through Mexico.

Until recently, the world of Mexican drugs was dominated by the Arellano
Felix brothers, known for their lavish lifestyles and fierce tempers. But
in February, police in the resort city of Mazatlan gunned down the gang's
feared enforcer, Ramon Arellano Felix. A month later, authorities captured
his brother Benjamin, the gang's operations chief.

As the Arellano Felix gang tries to overcome those blows, other smugglers
are moving to seize a piece of the action in the first major shake-up in
the drug business since 1997.

U.S. and Mexican investigators predict no one man will rise to fill the
void. Instead, a number of bosses are stepping to the forefront.

Based just across the border from El Paso, Texas, the Juarez organization
was once so powerful that it paid Colombian suppliers up to $30 million per
cocaine shipment, then transported enormous amounts of narcotics from
Mexico to a small army of distributors in New York, Chicago, Houston and
Los Angeles.

Drug agents had thought the group might collapse after the death of its
leader, Amado Carillo Fuentes, following botched plastic surgery in July
1997. Instead, control fell to his brother, Vicente, who expanded the
organization's operations, opening a control center in the eastern border
city of Reynosa to supplement the Ciudad Juarez headquarters.

Bermudez said Carillo Fuentes also has formed a strong alliance with the
leader of the Gulf cartel, Osiel Cardenas, which has allowed his family to
gain control of key smuggling posts on the Yucatan Peninsula.

"Several arrests have put the Gulf cartel in a difficult position,"
Bermudez said. "It needs alliances with the Carillo Fuentes organization."

Another rising leader is Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, who was a low-ranking
enforcer in the Juarez cartel but now heads a group of free-lance smugglers
based in Mazatlan, in the western state of Sinaloa.

A former farmer with extensive agricultural and botanical knowledge,
Zambada has worked to increase his gang's production of heroin, U.S.
officials say.

U.S. and Mexican agents are also watching Juan Esparragoza, an adviser to
Carillo Fuentes who they say acts as a "narco-diplomat" in smoothing over
problems between the gangs.

Donald Thornhill of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's San Diego
field office said authorities are expecting the rising crop of bosses to
"sit back and quietly get rich."

"Whoever is next in line we expect to keep a much lower profile," Thornhill
said. "They understand that having a lot of heat on them is not a good thing."

"The era of the big drug lord is over. Instead of one leader, they now
build an automated organization with regional managers who can cover more
terri~tory and create zones of influence in practically the whole country."
Mario Estuardo Bermudez, Mexico's top anti-drug prosecutor.