MEXICAN TESTS CONFIRM DEAD MAN WAS DRUG FIGURE

MEXICO CITY, March 13 (AP) -- DNA tests confirm that a man killed last
month during a shootout with the police was Ramon Arellano Felix, one of
the F.B.I.'s 10 most-wanted fugitives and a suspected leader of Mexico's
most brutal drug gang, prosecutors said today.

Assistant Attorney General Jose Jorge Campos announced at a news conference
that the authorities had compared blood samples taken from Mr. Arellano
Felix's jailed brother, Benjamin, with DNA evidence taken from bloodstains
on the clothes of a man carrying phony police credentials that identified
him as Jorge Perez Lopez.

The man died in a firefight the Pacific coast resort of Mazatlan on Feb.
10. Testing showed that the blood samples from the two men had a defining
"genetic affinity," Mr. Campos said.

Both American and Mexican officials had already said they were virtually
certain that the man using the name Jorge Perez Lopez was in fact Ramon
Arellano Felix.

Mr. Campos said federal forensic scientists in Mexico City were able to
confirm the identity of Ramon, even though they received blood samples from
Benjamin just four days ago, when he was arrested in the central city of
Puebla early Saturday.

F.B.I. officials in Washington said last month that they also were planning
to perform tests on DNA evidence collected from Mr. Perez Lopez's body, but
Campos said Mexican officials arrived at Wednesday's confirmation "with no
help from outside sources."

Mr. Campos said that the possibility of DNA testing had been explored with
another jailed brother, Francisco, before Benjamin's arrest but that
Francisco had refused to provide authorities with a blood sample.

Francisco has been in a maximum security prison outside Mexico City since
1993, serving time for his role in the murder of a Roman Catholic cardinal,
Juan Jesus Posadas Ocampo.

Mr. Campos said Mexican authorities had turned over Benjamin's blood
samples to their American counterparts for additional tests.

American and Mexican police agencies had determined that Ramon Arellano
Felix came to Mazatlan on Feb. 5 with a plan to kill a rival during
Carnaval celebrations. The police say his death resulted from a chance
encounter with traffic police who noted guns in the car in which he was riding.

A day after the shooting, people who identified themselves as relatives of
the slain man arrived and, using false documents, claimed the body from a
funeral home.

Authorities on both sides of the border say the death of Ramon dealt a
crippling blow to the family's Tijuana-based drug-smuggling ring, which
smuggled tons of cocaine and marijuana through border areas and into
California and other regions in the western United States. Catching up with
Benjamin over the weekend may mean the end of the ring altogether, the
police said.

During a Saturday raid on an unassuming home in a quiet neighborhood where
Benjamin had been hiding out, authorities found an altar honoring Ramon's
memory. Benjamin later acknowledged during questioning that his brother was
dead.

Benjamin is accused of handling the drug ring's financial dealings, while
police say Ramon established the gang's vicious reputation of gunning down
victims in broad daylight, making Tijuana, a city of 1.2 million, one of
Mexico's most violent places.

The F.B.I. posted Ramon, 37, on its 10 most-wanted list in September 1997.
A 1999 D.E.A. report attributed about 300 murders in Mexico and the United
States to the gang.