RIVALS, NOT POLICE, KILLED DRUG LORD, US AIDES SAY

MEXICO CITY, April 5 -- Mexico's most ruthless drug lord likely 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, who asked not to be identified but is familiar with the case,
said Ramon Arellano Felix, the enforcer of the Tijuana drug cartel run by
his family, is believed to have been forced to his knees and executed by
gunmen on Feb. 10 in Mazatlan on Mexico's Pacific coast.

He said the exact details of the killing will probably never be known. But
he said U.S. officials believe this version is correct.

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, who have been much more aggressive
and successful in pursuing drug traffickers since Fox took office in
December 2000. 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, army officers,
prosecutors and judges. A second U.S. law enforcement official agreed that
the death of Ramon Arellano Felix was "definitely not clever police work;
it was criminals killing in a barbaric manner."

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 among Mexican drug traffickers. The official said Zambada's
gang and the Arellano Felixes have been like the "Hatfields and McCoys"
fighting over control of "the most profitable geography in Mexico," the
lucrative drug corridor into the California through Tijuana, south of San
Diego.

He said Ramon Arellano Felix was on his way to a Mazatlan hotel to try to
kill Zambada. Instead, the official said, "he was set up." He said
Zambada's gunmen and Sinaloa state police forced Arellano Felix's car to
the side of the road. The official said they then forced Arellano Felix to
his knees and shot him "at least four times" at close range.

Oscar Rivera, a spokesman for the Sinaloa state police, denied the U.S.
officials' version, saying Arellano Felix was killed in a shootout with
state police officers.

Mexican authorities took several weeks before disclosing that they believed
the dead man found on the Mazatlan sidewalk was Arellano Felix, who
appeared on the FBI 10 Most Wanted list next to a photo of Osama bin Laden.
DNA tests conducted at the FBI laboratory in Washington confirmed last
month that the body was that of the drug lord, who U.S. officials believe
was personally responsible for hundreds of killings.