MEXICAN NAVY AIDED DRUG CARTEL

MEXICO CITY -(AP)- Mexican Navy officials helped protect the Pacific Coast
cocaine-shipping routes of a former major drug cartel in exchange for large
payoffs, a Mexican newspaper reported Sunday.

The operatives of the Tijuana drug organization -- most of whom now are in
prison or dead -- paid officers $250,000 for each shipment of Colombian
cocaine they received, then shipped to the United States, the Reforma
newspaper said, citing police documents.

The report also said that from 1998 to 2000, the cartel received information
on the routes of U.S. anti-narcotics agents along the coast.

The newspaper said the secretary of the navy declined to comment immediately
on the report.

The head of the Tijuana gang, Benjamin Arellano Felix, was arrested in
March.

His brother, gang "enforcer" Ramon Arellano Felix, was killed in February by
police who were working for a rival drug trafficker, according to U.S.
officials.

Two other top cartel officials also have been arrested over the past year,
and prosecutors have charged 10 police officials in Baja California state
following a roundup of suspects with alleged ties to the Arellano Felix drug
gang.

The cartel divided its coastal operations into four zones, extending from
Acapulco in the south to Ensenada in the north, Reforma said, citing
testimony from two protected witnesses to Mexican investigators.