CAPTURE UNLIKELY TO OVERDOSE DRUG CARTEL

MEXICO CITY: Mexico's Arellano Felix drug-trafficking cartel has lost the
two men reputed to be its top generals - but the country's most feared and
ruthless mafia is unlikely to disappear.

The US demand for drugs and the billions of dollars their sale generates
mean others will quickly emerge to take its helm, experts in the narcotics
trade say.

In a predawn raid in the central city of Puebla on Saturday, army special
forces arrested Benjamin Arellano Felix, the head of the cartel that
officials say ships tons of cocaine into the United States each year.

Authorities also confirmed that Benjamin's brother, Ramon Arellano Felix,
was killed in a police shootout last month.

But a former Mexican federal attorney general said Saturday that Benjamin's
arrest and Ramon's death did not necessarily spell the end of the Arellano
Felix organization.

"We all know that when a capo is captured, it does not necessarily end the
phenomenon, because someone is waiting to replace him," Antonio Lozano
Gracia said.

Other Arellano Felix brothers remain at large. Javier is reportedly the
third-ranking member of the cartel behind Benjamin and Ramon. Eduardo
reputedly controls drug shipments to the United States, while Carlos and
Luis Fernando are believed to play secondary roles in the business, US and
Mexican anti-narcotics authorities say.

Another brother, Francisco, is in a Mexican jail on drug charges.

"These guys are amazingly replaceable," said criminologist and lawyer
Rafael Ruiz Harrell. "One disappears and someone else replaces him with
extraordinary speed."

Based in the city of Tijuana, across the border from San Diego, California,
the Arellano Felix brothers allegedly run a multibillion- dollar business
that smuggled tons of cocaine, as well as marijuana, heroin and
methamphetamines, to cities in the United States.

Benjamin had for more than a decade managed and oversaw all of the cartel's
drug trafficking operations, according to US and Mexican anti-narcotics
authorities.

US authorities in 2000 issued a 10-count indictment charging Benjamin and
Ramon with running a drug-smuggling organization and kidnapping and
murdering rival drug traffickers, informants and law enforcement officers.
Benjamin was also included in a US$2 million reward offered for information
leading to the arrest of Ramon.

Anti-narcotics officials say Ramon Arellano Felix was the cartel's head
enforcer, earning him a spot on the FBI's 10 most wanted list next to
Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden, who is wanted in the September 11
attacks that left nearly 3,000 dead.

The Arellano Felix organization, known to US anti-narcotics authorities as
simply the AFO, allegedly spends millions of dollars each year in bribes to
military, police, politicians and judges, authorities say.

And rival drug dealers, informants and officials who refuse to be bought,
got Arellano Felix bullets instead of cash. Ramon, 37, is believed to have
orchestrated dozens of murders, anti-narcotics officials say.

Ramon was shot dead on February 10 in Mazatlan, where he travelled with
members of his gang to personally kill rival drug dealer Ismael Zambada,
authorities confirmed Saturday. The hit in Mazatlan would have been only
the latest in a long line of killings by Ramon and the Arellano Felix gang,
from a Roman Catholic cardinal to humble villagers.

The brothers gained notoriety for vicious turf wars in battles for control
of the drug empire of their uncle, Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo, who headed
the Guadalajara cartel and was arrested in 1985.

Authorities say two of the brothers survived a dramatic assassination
attempt in 1992 by rival drug baron Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman from the
Sinaloa cartel.

According to Mexican police, Guzman and his main lieutenant, Hector "El
Guero" Palma, sent about 40 heavily armed men to kill Francisco and Ramon
Arellano Felix at the "Christine" discotheque in the Pacific resort of
Puerto Vallarta. Six people died, but the brothers escaped. Mexican
authorities said a revenge attack by the brothers led to the accidental
slaying of Cardinal Juan Jesus Posadas Ocampo, the archbishop of
Guadalajara, although some in the church dispute the circumstances
surrounding that killing.

The brothers are believed to have sent a hit team to Guadalajara airport to
kill Guzman, who was expected to arrive in a white Ford Grand Marquis car.

The gunmen open fired on a car similar to Guzman's, only to find it was
carrying Posadas, who was on his way to greet a papal envoy.

Guzman, who was later arrested but last year escaped from a maximum-
security prison with the help of guards, arrived in an identical car at the
airport but was able to escape because of the confusion, authorities say.