GANG HIT BLAMED IN DRUG LORD'S DEATH

MEXICO CITY - Mexico's most ruthless drug lord probably was killed by a
rival gang aided by corrupt police officers, not in a shoot-out with police
as has been widely reported, according to a senior U.S. law enforcement
official.

The official said Ramon Arellano Felix, the enforcer of the Tijuana drug
cartel run by his family, is believed to have been executed by gunmen on
Feb. 10 in Mazatlan on Mexico's Pacific coast.

The death of Arellano Felix and the arrest of his brother, Benjamin
Arellano Felix, on March 9 have been portrayed by President Vicente Fox and
others as major victories for Mexican law enforcement.

The U.S. official stressed that the capture of Benjamin Arellano Felix, who
was thought of as the family cartel's leader, was indeed a significant
accomplishment for Mexican authorities. But the official said the killing
of Ramon Arellano Felix was actually a drug-war assassination in which
Mexican police officers were accomplices.

For years, the Arellano Felixes and other leading Mexican drug lords have
been able to escape capture by paying off police. A second U.S. law
enforcement official agreed that the death of Ramon Arellano Felix was
"definitely not clever police work."

The official said Arellano Felix was killed by gunmen working for rival
drug lord Ismael Zambada Garcia, who has now become a top target of U.S.
law enforcement. The official said Zambada's gang and the Arellano
Felixeshave been fighting over the lucrative drug corridor into the
California. He said Ramon Arellano Felix was on his way to a Mazatlan hotel
to try to kill Zambada; instead, "he was set up."