SHOOTOUT VICTIM APPEARS TO BE DRUG LORD ON MOST-WANTED LIST

MEXICO CITY -- It appears that one of the U.S.'s most wanted alleged drug
lords, Ramon Arellano Felix, died in a shootout with Mexican police this month.

U.S. officials believe that a man gunned down Feb. 10 in the Pacific coast
resort of Mazatlan, initially identified as Jorge Perez Lopez, was in fact
Mr. Arellano, chief enforcer of a family-run cartel in Tijuana that sits
atop Mexico's multibillion-dollar narcotics underworld.

"Based on the information I have, I think there is a very good chance that
it is Ramon Arellano Felix, but we have to wait until the government of
Mexico makes that determination," U.S. Ambassador Jeffrey Davidow told
Mexican reporters late Wednesday. The U.S. Embassy declined further comment
Wednesday.

Mr. Arellano's death would mark the biggest blow in years to Mexican
cartels, which in the 1990s surpassed their Colombian suppliers in stature.
Mr. Arellano's picture appears next to Osama bin Laden's on the FBI's
10-most-wanted list, and Washington has offered a $2 million reward for his
capture. After allegedly masterminding or carrying out the murders of
dozens of police, judges, politicians and even a Roman Catholic cardinal,
Mr. Arellano was the first Mexican trafficker ever to make the list.

Although Mr. Arellano's death would shake the cartel, it may do little to
slow the overall flow of drugs north of the border. If recent history
holds, other Mexican drug gangs will step into the fray, or the cartel
itself will regroup, analysts say. "These are big corporations, and they
can continue to operate without a top executive," says Juan Miguel Ponce,
the former head of Interpol in Mexico.

The next day, however, the bodies of both suspects were returned to people
claiming to be family members, and cremated. Fortunately for embarrassed
Mexican officials, police had enough evidence from the crime scene to carry
out a DNA test, reportedly comparing the results to blood taken from Mr.
Arellano's older brother Francisco, who is in prison. Police also recovered
a gun linked to the murders of two federal judges in November.

A baby-faced playboy, Mr. Arellano was the cartel's muscle, while another
brother, Benjamin, ran the business. In one of his more chilling actions,
Ramon reportedly hired a man to lure the wife of a rival drug lord to
Venezuela, where she was killed. Her decapitated head was returned to the
drug lord in a box of dry ice.