SECURITY BEEFED UP FOR U.S. DRUG
CZAR

Security for Gen. Barry McCaffrey, the U.S. drug policy chief, was
beefed up Thursday after he received a death threat from a man
claiming to be with Mexico's largest drug cartel, sources said.

Security officials asked McCaffrey to curtail a scheduled visit to
Tijuana, Mexico, on Thursday but he refused, the federal officials,
speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press.
McCaffrey said he would not be intimidated.

The threatening call was placed to the FBI on Tuesday while
McCaffrey was in Laredo, Texas, on a tour of the Southwest border.

The caller, who spoke in Spanish, told the FBI field office in
Houston the slaying would be carried out with a missile attack. FBI
officials refused to comment.

Although McCaffrey receives "hate mail like any other public
official, " one of the sources said, "this was the first call of this
caliber from a drugtrafficking organization targeting him."

U.S. officials notified Mexican authorities, and both were providing
additional security for McCaffrey. Additional U.S. marshals have been
assigned to McCaffrey's security detail since the threat, one of the
sources said.

"I think the security arrangements have been firstrate and we very
much appreciate that the Mexicans have taken firstrate precautions,"
McCaffrey said. "I'm glad I'm coming on the border to talk to
authorities on both sides."

Asked about the threat as he toured the Tijuana border crossing,
McCaffrey said:
"We're aware there have been more than 200 acts of violence against U.S.
law
enforcement just last year along this border and more than 200 Mexican
law enforcement
officers murdered. So we're aware that public officials on both sides of
this frontier have
to confront this violent situation."

The caller said he was associated with the cartel formerly run by
Amado Carrillo Fuentes. Carrillo, known as "Lord of the Skies"
because he used jets to ship massive loads of cocaine to the
U.S.Mexico border, died July 4 after complications from plastic
surgery.

Mexican and U.S. officials have been concerned about competing drug
organizations filling the power vacuum. Carrillo's operation raked in
tens of millions of dollars weekly, Mexican law enforcement officials
said.

At least 11 people have been killed in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, in
what is believed to be drugrelated violence since Carrillo's death.

"The concurrence of violence associated with this change of
succession . . . is [seen] not only in their murdering each other in
large numbers, but they're also unfortunately attacking U.S. and
Mexican law enforcement," McCaffrey told a news conference on
Thursday."

[Copyright 1997, Dialog]
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