Pubdate: Sat, 10 Jun 2006 Source: Miami Herald (FL) Copyright: 2006 The Miami Herald Contact: http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/262 Author: Will Weissert, Associated Press Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/mexico $5M BOUNTY ON DRUG DON U.S. Authorities Have Offered Up To $5 Million For Information That Helps Capture A Reputed Leader Of The Gulf Cartel. The Mexico-Based Smuggling Operation Is One Of The World's Most Powerful Drug Organizations MEXICO CITY - The United States offered a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to the capture of the man they say heads the feared Gulf Cartel, believed to smuggle tons of cocaine and marijuana north each year. U.S. Ambassador Tony Garza, in a statement released late Thursday, called Jorge Eduardo Costilla Sanchez ``the linchpin of a network of drug dealers and murderers.'' Ambassador Garza said Costilla Sanchez is charged with 12 counts of drug trafficking and money laundering. He is also wanted for assaulting a police official. ''Residents of our border communities will be significantly safer if he is apprehended and bought to justice,'' Garza said. Known on the street as ''El Coss,'' Costilla Sanchez had been simply referred to as a key Gulf Cartel boss before Thursday's statement saying U.S. officials believe he now heads the drug organization based in Matamoros, across from Brownsville, Texas. Investigators say the Gulf Cartel, the Juarez Cartel and a gang of smugglers and assassins headed by Mexico's most-wanted drug lord, Joaquin ''El Chapo'' Guzman, are Mexico's main drug gangs. Costilla Sanchez had been previously linked to the brutal killing of newspaper columnist Francisco Arratia Saldierna, who was beaten to death in Matamoros in August 2004. Arratia Saldierna's reports on drug trafficking and organized crime might have prompted the attack. The Gulf Cartel was thought to be headed by Osiel Cardenas until his 2003 capture following a shootout with police in Matamoros. Mexican authorities believe Cardenas has continued to run much of his drug gang's operations from prison and may have formed an alliance with another jailed kingpin, Benjamin Arellano Felix. Arellano Felix is accused of heading the Tijuana-based smuggling syndicate that bears his family's name. Both men are being held in the top-security La Palma prison west of Mexico City. But Thursday's announcement emphasized Costilla Sanchez's role as chief of the cartel. Garza said he is ``believed to be the leader of the Gulf Cartel, an organization responsible for the distribution of thousands of kilograms of cocaine and marijuana into Mexico and the United States each year.'' ''We offer a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to his arrest,'' he said. U.S. officials say that while Colombia remains the world's biggest producer of cocaine, more than 90 percent of it enters the United States through Mexico, and cartels based in this country are now the most powerful in the world. Investigators have blamed mounting violence along the U.S.-Mexico border on a turf war between rival cartels over billion-dollar smuggling routes into the United States. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin