MEXICAN RAID SNARES OFFICIALS

Mexican soldiers, military police and federal prosecutors arrested nearly
40 top government officials during a raid on a state police academy near
Tijuana, taking into custody that city's police chief and the commandant of
the State Judicial Police in Tijuana.

Those arrested during the Thursday raid, which included the assistant state
attorney general of Baja California, were charged with corruption and face
pending trials in what U.S. authorities described as a crackdown by Mexican
President Vicente Fox on drug trafficking.

"The initiative taken by the government of Mexico under the Fox
administration against drug traffickers, and those assisting drug
traffickers, is unprecedented," said Asa Hutchinson, head of the U.S. Drug
Enforcement Administration.

"The government of Mexico continues to send a clear message that drug
traffickers do not rule Mexico and that laws will be enforced," Mr.
Hutchinson said. "Most significantly, these arrests follow the dismantling
of the leadership of the violent Arellano-Felix organization and will
reduce the possibility that another organization will dominate the Tijuana
area."

In March, Mexican authorities captured Benjamin Arellano-Felix, the leader
of one of the most violent drug-smuggling organizations in the world. The
DEA said he was the patriarch of a drug cartel that shipped tons of cocaine
and marijuana annually into the United States, while laundering millions of
dollars in illicit profits.

Indicted in 1992 in California for cocaine trafficking and money-laundering
violations, the suspected drug boss has been a top priority of DEA and
Mexican authorities ever since.

Arellano-Felix, 49, was arrested by Mexican army units March 9 outside
Puebla. He had eluded Mexican authorities for more than 10 years.

He is being held at the maximum-security La Palma federal prison near
Mexico City.

His brother, Ramon Eduardo Arellano-Felix, 37, who was described by Mexican
and U.S. authorities as the cartel's chief enforcer, reportedly was killed
during a Feb. 10 shootout with Mexican police in Mazatlan.

The Arellano-Felix organization controls drug trafficking into the United
States along the westernmost part of the U.S.-Mexico border. The
organization smuggles marijuana and cocaine into the United States, as well
as large quantities of heroin and methamphetamines. It is also believed to
distribute an estimated $1 million weekly in bribes to Mexican authorities.

Based in Tijuana, the ring has been blamed for numerous assassinations of
police, prosecutors, judges and rivals in the drug trade. Ramon Eduardo
Arellano-Felix had been on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list since 1998, with a
$2 million reward for his capture.

Among those arrested in the Mexican raid at the academy near the border
city of Tecate were Carlos Otal, Tijuana's police chief; Rogelio
Delgado-Neri, assistant state attorney general of Baja California; Sergio
Riedel-Borico, first commandant of the State Judicial Police in Tijuana;
and Armando Martinez-Duarte, first subcommandant of the Mexican Federal
Attorney General's Office in Mexicali.