OFFICIALS TAKING BOUNTY REPORTS SERIOUSLY

U.S. and Mexican officials said Tuesday recent threats against
American federal agents - including possible bounties of up to
$200,000 - are being taken seriously and could be a drug cartel's
response to a recent large marijuana bust.

And while agents on both sides of the Rio Grande are on high alert,
U.S. Customs and Immigration and Naturalization Service officials say
the specific threats are routine.

"On average, after a large drug apprehension we hear a rumor of that
nature," U.S. Customs spokeswoman Judy Turner told The Brownsville
Herald in a phone interview from Houston.

"We can't comment about these kind of threats because we have a
policy to protect any individual (agents) in the agency," Turner said.

Despite the reported threats, officials said agents would continue
with their daily responsibilities and remain on the highest alert.

INS spokesman Art Moreno said U.S. Customs circulated an advisory
Monday which indicated that it received bounty-like threats on
federal agents after a 9,000-pound marijuana bust at a Brownsville
home on Dec. 13. Five Mexican residents were arrested in connection
with the confiscation.

"Every time there's an operation like this and drug traffickers take
a hit, bounties and threats frequently surface against federal
agents," Moreno said.

Moreno added that when these threats are made, generally its
organized groups like suspected cartel leader Osiel Cardenas Guillen.
Officials suspect Cardenas, a former lieutenant of former Gulf Cartel
kingpin Juan Garcia Abrego, is thought to live in Matamoros.

Meanwhile, in Mexico, an official at the federal attorney general's
office in Ciudad Victoria said the threat is being taken seriously.

"We have an alert just to prevent something from happening related to
these threats," said Commander Guillermo Narvaez in a phone interview
with The Herald.

"Federal agents have these kind a threats even here in Mexico. We
believe an organization like Osiel Cardenas is behind of this because
this is the way that he always tries to scare officials," Narvaez
said. "We're talking about $10,000 or even $200,000 (concerning the
reported bounties)."

In June of 2000, a Reynosa community activist offered $10,000 to
anyone who would kill a U.S. Border Patrol agent. Carlos Ibarra Perez
said the bounty was a result of border patrol abuses against Mexican
citizens.

Ibarra later recanted his offer and blamed the entire situation on
miscommunication.

Border Patrol officials have said in the past that there have been
similar threats against agents in El Paso and other border areas.