ALLEGED MEXICAN DRUG CARTEL LEADER CAPTURED

MEXICO CITY - Soldiers raiding a house in central Mexico early Saturday
captured the alleged leader of a drug cartel accused of spreading terror
across much of the country. They also found evidence that his brother, the
gang's alleged co-leader, was dead.

With the arrest of Benjamin Arellano Felix and the death of his brother,
Ramon, "the cartel of the Arellanos has been completely dismantled,"
Attorney General Ramon Macedo de la Concha told a news conference.

"It seems that this is a great triumph for justice," President Vicente Fox
said Saturday as he congratulated the army and the Justice Department.

U.S. and Mexican authorities say the brothers smuggled tons of cocaine,
amphetamines and marijuana into the United States, killing hundreds of
people - ranging from farmers to police to a Roman Catholic cardinal - to
crush threats.

Still, the breakup of other major gangs in the past has had little or no
long-term effect on the flow of illegal drugs into the United States.

"Tomorrow there will be another substituting for them for one simple
reason: While there is consumption, demand in the United States, there will
be drug trafficking in Mexico," said Tijuana journalist Jesus Blancornelas,
who survived an assassination attempt by the gang, in an interview with
Mexico's Formato 21 radio station.

Benjamin Arellano Felix was captured without gunfire at about 1 a.m. as
police raided a two-story house in an upper-middle class neighborhood of
Puebla, a city 65 miles east of Mexico City, Mexican Defense Secretary
Ricardo Clemente Vega Garcia announced at a news conference.

He said an altar to Ramon Arellano Felix was found in the house, suggesting
he was killed in a Feb. 10 police shootout in Mazatlan. Ramon Arellano
Felix is on the FBI's 10 most wanted list with a $2 million reward for his
capture.