MEXICO CAPTURES THE MASTERMIND OF KEY DRUG CARTEL, ENDING REIGN

MEXICO CITY -- Mexico said it had dismantled the country's most ruthless
and powerful drug cartel after capturing its alleged mastermind, Benjamin
Arellano Felix, and confirming the death of his brother, Ramon, the
cartel's brutal enforcer.

In Washington, Asa Hutchinson, the head of the Drug Enforcement
Administration, congratulated Mexico on the capture. "We've been seeking
his apprehension for years," he said. "It was our top priority." Mr.
Hutchinson said he hoped Mexican authorities could now reclaim the Tijuana
area, the base for the Arellano Felix cartel, which the gang has held in
"almost a death grip."

U.S. officials said they expect Mr. Arellano Felix to be extradited to the
U.S., where he faces drug-trafficking charges.

Mexican President Vicente Fox called the capture "a great triumph for
justice" that showed his government is serious about fighting the drug trade.

Army troops apprehended Mr. Arellano Felix early Saturday morning in a raid
in a middle-class suburb of the city of Puebla, 65 miles from Mexico City,
where he had been masquerading as an ordinary businessman. Mexican Attorney
General Rafael Macedo de la Concha said the alleged drug dealer's detention
could prove a fatal blow to the cartel, which dominates the drug trade
along Mexico's Pacific coast.

But analysts said the flow of drugs to the U.S. was likely to continue
unabated, as other narcotics gangs pick up the slack. The cartel could even
regroup.

After his arrest, Mexican officials said, Mr. Arellano Felix confirmed to
interrogators that his brother Ramon, using a false identity, had been
killed in the Pacific resort city of Mazatlan in a gunfight with police
last month. Ramon, whose picture is on the Federal Bureau of
Investigation's 10 Most Wanted list, next to that of Osama bin Laden, is
believed to have been the enforcer of the cartel, allegedly orchestrating
or carrying out the killings of dozens of people, including judges, police
chiefs and the Roman Catholic Cardinal of Guadalajara.

DNA testing to conclusively prove the death of Ramon Arellano Felix hasn't
yet been completed.

U.S. and Mexican officials said the Arellano Felix organization has spent
millions of dollars to bribe generals, government officials and police
chiefs. In a violent business, they are considered the most violent of
Mexico's drug gangs, as well as the most technologically sophisticated,
using an array of listening devices to help keep law enforcement at bay.