Pubdate: Thu, 14 Mar 2002
Source: Denver Rocky Mountain News (CO)
Copyright: 2002, Denver Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://www.rockymountainnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/371

GENETIC TESTS CONFIRM DEATH OF ONE OF FBI'S MOST WANTED DRUG SUSPECTS

Blood stains from the shirt of a man killed in a shootout with police last 
month helped authorities confirm the death of Ramon Arellano Felix, the 
suspected leader of Mexico's most feared drug gang and one of the FBI's 10 
most-wanted fugitives.

Assistant Attorney General Juan Jorge Campos said Mexican authorities 
compared blood taken from Arellano Felix's jailed brother, Benjamin, with 
DNA evidence collected from the shootout at the Pacific coast resort of 
Mazatlan on Feb. 10.

Tests showed the samples had a "genetic affinity" that proved the dead man 
was Benjamin Arellano Felix's brother, Campos said at a news conference 
Wednesday. U.S. and Mexican officials already had said they were almost 
certain the dead man was the fugitive.

U.S. and Mexican officials say the two brothers ran a Tijuana-based drug 
ring that smuggled tons of cocaine and marijuana into the United States and 
killed hundreds of people over the past 15 years.

Other siblings have alleged roles in the organization, but authorities say 
the death of one brother and the arrest of the other may mean its demise.

The FBI posted the 37-year-old Ramon Arellano Felix, accused of being the 
gang's enforcer, on its 10 most-wanted list in September 1997. A 1999 DEA 
report attributed about 300 murders in Mexico and the United States to the 
gang.

U.S. and Mexican police agencies had determined that Arellano Felix came to 
Mazatlan on Feb. 5 with a plan to kill a rival during Carnival 
celebrations. Police say his death resulted from a chance encounter with 
traffic police who saw guns in the car he was driving.

A day after the shootout, people who identified themselves as relatives of 
the slain man arrived and claimed the body from a funeral home, using false 
documents.

On Saturday, Mexican troops captured Benjamin Arellano Felix in a raid on a 
house in Puebla, east of Mexico City. Authorities said police found an 
altar honoring Ramon's memory, and that Benjamin Arellano Felix told 
interrogators his brother was dead.
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