'BRUTAL' MEXICAN DRUG GANG FALLING APART, OFFICIALS SAY

TIJUANA, Mexico - With the Arellano Felix brothers out of the picture - one
in jail, another apparently dead - U.S. and Mexican authorities believe
their drug gang is falling apart.

"Basically this is it for them," said Donald Thornhill Jr. of the Drug
Enforcement Administration in San Diego, Calif. Benjamin and Ramon Arellano
Felix "were really the glue that kept the organization together."

The brothers allegedly built one of Latin America's most powerful and
brutal smuggling businesses.

Benjamin Arellano Felix was captured by Mexican troops Saturday in Puebla,
east of Mexico City. Authorities said he confirmed reports that his brother
Ramon died Feb. 10 in a shootout with police in Mazatlan.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher called the
Arellano Felix organization "one of the most violent and brutal cartels in
the world" and said the arrest was the most significant ever of a wanted
drug trafficker in Mexico.

The brothers have eight other siblings, some allegedly involved in the
ring. One is in jail. But Thornhill, who has been tracking them since the
1980s, said he doesn't see anyone who can succeed the duo.

"Benjamin was the business side of the organization while Ramon was a
stone-cold killer who surrounded himself with like-minded people. That was
what made them very much successful at what they did," Thornhill said.

"I don't see people among their ranks that could possibly keep up with
them. I think the remaining brothers don't have the juice to keep the
organization running."

Nobody expects the gang's fall to halt trafficking. Several drug kingpins
at least as powerful as the Arellano Felixes have fallen since 1985 and
drugs keep flowing across the border.

Many fear the brothers' absence could set off a battle for control over the
lucrative drug corridor to California.

"I'm afraid there is going to be a war," said Tijuana journalist Jesus
Blancornelas, who survived an assassination attempt by the gang.

On Monday, Benjamin Arellano Felix made his first appearance in a closed
courtroom at Mexico's top-security La Palma prison. He is accused of
bribery, drug smuggling and criminal association.

His attorneys asked for a delay in the arraignment; his plea and a judge's
decision on whether he should be formally charged are likely Friday.

U.S. Ambassador Jeffrey Davidow said Monday that he expects U.S.
authorities to seek the extradition of Arellano Felix, but he added, "I
think that Mr. Arellano will have to face very serious charges here in
Mexico" first.

Originally from Sinaloa state, the brothers moved to Tijuana in the 1980s
and turned their family's small smuggling operation into a fearsome empire
that spread to at least 15 Mexican states and across the border.

Officials say Ramon enlisted the sons of some of Tijuana's wealthiest
families as killers while Benjamin worked on buying off officials.

Their methods were so effective that neither felt the need to change his
appearance through plastic surgery despite being among the most wanted men
on both sides of the border.

The gang raised the savagery of Mexico's drug-related violence to a new
level, even slaughtering children, whom other drug lords had tended to spare.

Thornhill said the ferocity of the killings shocked even veteran law
enforcement officers. In 1996, Ramon's gunmen shot a state prosecutor more
than 100 times and then drove their van over his body dozens of times.

"All drug organizations tend to be violent but not like these people, who
are absolutely every bit cold-blooded," Thornhill said. "The fact that they
are out of circulation is to everybody's benefit." Two weeks ago, Mexican
police arrested a couple who were sending drugs to the United States for
the gang through a tunnel built 20 feet under the U.S. border. Equipped
with lights, steel rails and an electric cart, the tunnel started behind a
fireplace in the couple's bedroom and ended inside a California home.

A U.S. Customs official said he expects minor smugglers to flood the border
with drugs while control over the territory is in flux.

Walking by one of the wanted posters for the brothers that still dot the
world's busiest border crossing, Rigoberto Puentes, 52, said although the
drug trade will continue, he's happy the brothers are gone. "There were so
many killings, so much corruption, so many drugs," the Tijuana mechanic
said. "It affected us all. My kids have drug problems. I used drugs for 12
years. So I think it's great they finally took them down. At least we can
get a break from all this if only for a little while."