MEXICO CITY (AP) The
king of Mexican drug trafficking is dead. Now many expect a battle over who
will succeed him as one of the world's most powerful drug barons.

Amado Carrillo Fuentes was buried Friday at his family compound in the
Pacific coast state of Sinaloa, but not before speculation had already begun
about who would replace him as head of the powerful Juarez drug cartel.

Already mentioned as possible successors are his brother, a top lieutenant
and a selfstyled drug world ``diplomat.''

No matter who eventually replaces Carrillo, the succession fight will cause
``an internal disarray that surely could have repercussions,'' Mexican
antidrug prosecutor Mariano Herran Salvatti said Friday. He did not
elaborate.

Some U.S. drug experts have speculated Carrillo will be replaced by his
brother Vicente, 34, listed by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration as
one of the top 20 Mexican traffickers.

Vicente Carrillo, who is under U.S. federal indictment on cocaine charges in
Texas, has overseen gang operations along the U.S.Mexico border. The DEA
says he has received cocaineladen aircraft from Colombia, controlled storage
sites and arranged transport to distribution points.

Mexican drug smuggling experts named two other candidates to succeed
Carrillo: a top Carrillo lieutenant and a man known as the ``diplomat'' for
his ability to maintain peace among the cartels.

The ``diplomat,'' according to DEA and other Mexican drug trafficking
experts, is Juan Jose Esparragoza Moreno, a Juarez cartel member believed to
have laundered $165 million in recent months.

Trained as an attorney, Esparragoza, 48, hails from the state of Sinaloa,
home to many of Mexico's most powerful drug lords.

During the first half of the 1980s, he was an aide to Miguel Angel Felix
Gallardo, the ``godfather of Mexican drug trafficking'' who was jailed in
Mexico in 1989.

Esparragoza served seven years in a Mexican prison on drug charges before he
was released in 1990. Recently, he is believed to have become more closely
involved with the Juarez group.

The Carrillo lieutenant mentioned as his possible successor is Eduardo
Gonzalez Quirarte. Some experts consider him the No. 2 man in the Juarez
cartel, the Tijuana weekly newspaper Zeta reported Friday.

Zeta said he was the alleged contact between Carrillo and Gen. Jesus Gonzalez
Gutierrez, Mexico's top antidrug official who was arrested in February on
charges of accepting bribes from Carrillo's gang.

In addition to the succession battle, the newspaper also forecast attempts by
rival drug traffickers to seize parts of the Juarez cartel's market.

The Arellano Felix brothers from Tijuana, who form one of Mexico's most
violent and most powerful drug gangs, are among those expected to try to
seize some of Carrillo's lucrative business.

Carrillo, 41, died July 4 in a Mexico City maternity clinic after undergoing
extensive plastic surgery and liposuction.

Prosecutors said Thursday that the operation was intended ``to radically
change his physical appearance to avoid apprehension by authorities.''

Authorities were trying to determine whether his death was caused by homicide
or medical malpractice.

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