BREAKING THE AFO

Good Progress, More Work To Do

A year ago, we said the Tijuana-based narco-trafficking syndicate known as
the Arellano Felix Organization wouldn't be defeated until that became a
priority for the U.S. and Mexican governments.

On the evidence of recent months especially, Washington and Mexico City
may, finally, be giving the AFO's demise the priority it deserves.

AFO head Benjamin Arellano Felix was tracked down and arrested in Mexico
March 10 and is being held in maximum security custody near Mexico City.
Ramon Arellano Felix, the AFO's long-feared enforcer, was killed Feb. 10 in
a shootout with Mexican police in Mazatlan.

Two other AFO kingpins arrested in 2000 - accused money launderer Jesus
Labra Aviles and operations director Ismael Higuera Guerrero - are in
custody awaiting trial in Mexico. A third, confessed AFO lieutenant
Everardo Arturo Paez Martinez, was extradited by the Mexican government to
the United States last year in a precedent-setting move. Paez pleaded
guilty in a San Diego federal court last January to drug trafficking
charges and was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

An AFO tunnel used for moving illicit narcotics by the ton under the border
at Tecate was discovered and destroyed earlier this year in a joint
U.S.-Mexican operation. Lesser AFO drug runners and thugs, including
several alleged assassins, have been apprehended and jailed in Mexico. The
U.S. Treasury Department has frozen the American assets of Baja businesses
believed to be laundering drug money profits for the Arellanos.

Clearly, many of these successes on both sides of the border can be
attributed to patient, persistent investigation and police work over many
months or years.

But it's just as true that the decisive impetus for cracking Mexico's most
dangerous drug cartel can only come from commitments made in Mexico City
and Washington.

Mexican President Vicente Fox has vowed to shut down the Tijuana cartel and
bring its ringleaders to justice. The Bush administration has matched this
by directing the Drug Enforcement Administration to make breaking the AFO
its highest priority. Both governments must sustain their commitments.

Much remains to be accomplished before the AFO is not merely disrupted but
fully defeated.

Brothers Eduardo and Javier Arellano Felix are the cartel's presumed new
bosses. The AFO still controls the lucrative Tijuana-San Diego
drug-smuggling corridor known as the "Plaza." Tons of the AFO's cocaine,
marijuana and methamphetamine are still flowing into the United States. The
Tijuana cartel, like Mexico's other drug syndicates, continues to corrupt
and subvert the rule of law.

Both governments know what works. Both governments need each other in this
vital struggle. Despite recent successes, the ranks of Mexico's police and
prosecutors remain riddled with corruption. Fox needs American help - in
training, screening and intelligence - to combat this corruption. On the
U.S. side, such front-line agencies as the Drug Enforcement Administration,
FBI and Customs need the resources to prevail against the still-formidable
Arellano Felix Organization.

It's a battle neither country can afford to lose.