Pubdate: Thu, 31 Oct 2002
Source: Orlando Sentinel (FL)
Copyright: 2002 Orlando Sentinel
Contact:  http://www.orlandosentinel.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/325
Author: Kevin Sullivan and Mary Jordan, The Washington Post

U.S. HAS LOST DRUG WAR, MEXICAN CARTEL SUSPECT SAYS

ALMOLOYA DE JUAREZ, Mexico -- Benjamin Arellano Felix, the man accused of 
running Mexico's most ruthless drug cartel, said the United States has 
already lost its war on drugs and that violent trafficking gangs will 
thrive as long as Americans keep buying marijuana, cocaine and heroin.

"It would stop being a business if the United States didn't want drugs," 
Arellano said Tuesday during a rare interview in the La Palma 
maximum-security federal prison here, where Mexican authorities hope to 
keep him for life.

Most Latin Americans, from presidents to taxi drivers, say that U.S. demand 
is responsible for the drug trade.

U.S. and Mexican officials say Arellano, 48, heads the Tijuana-based cartel 
bearing his family name, which has moved billions of dollars worth of 
Mexican and Colombian drugs into the United States while committing some of 
the most vicious killings. But they also acknowledge that since his arrest 
in March, there has been no slowdown in the flow of drugs.

"They talk about a war against the Arellano brothers," said Arellano, who 
eluded the Mexican police and military, the U.S. Drug Enforcement 
Administration and the FBI for more than a decade. "They haven't won. I'm 
here, and nothing has changed.

"When something is out of reach, it is more interesting to people," he 
said. "If drugs were like cigarettes or alcohol, there wouldn't be a black 
market. It would put an end to the capos."
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