WAR

NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico - The ghosts of the world's most infamous, powerful and ruthless drug lords have risen violently in this turbulent city along the South Texas border.

For years in cities such as Medellin, Colombia, and Tijuana, Mexico, men such as Pablo Escobar and the Arellano-Felix brothers used murder, kidnapping and extortion to terrorize law officers and enemies alike.

Those men are now gone, killed or in custody. But a new generation has emerged, and this one has set its sights on Nuevo Laredo, a city of 500,000 people across the Rio Grande from the fastest-growing U.S. border city, Laredo.

Two powerful cartels are battling for control of the lucrative illegal drug trade in Nuevo Laredo. At least 60 men -- including 13 police officers -- have been slain this year in drug-related incidents. Dozens more have simply disappeared.

The high-stakes battle between the Gulf Cartel and the Cartel de Milenio has spawned a troubling new tactic: "narco-arson," in which cartel members torch their rivals' luxurious homes in the city's most fashionable neighborhoods.

Authorities have scored some victories. Residents and business owners say recent efforts by police and military forces, some of which were transferred from other cities, have eased fears of an all-out takeover by the cartels.

"Right now, it's probably the safest place in Mexico because everybody's here," said Pablo "Jack" Suneson, who grew up in Laredo and now owns the upscale Marti's boutique across the border.

Nearly half the local police force was suspended during a drug-related corruption investigation, which compelled federal authorities to send in some 500 agents to help with public security. A few days after most of the officers were cleared, 10 investigators from the Mexican attorney general's office came under suspicion for alleged cartel connections.

And about a quarter of the 150 elite military officers who arrived last fall to stem a burgeoning wave of violence eventually defected to become foot soldiers for the Gulf Cartel. They were implicated last month in one of the most brazen and dramatic public firefights to date.

"These cartels aren't playing games. They have killed a whole bunch of people, and they're going to keep killing," said Lt. Martin Cuellar, a narcotics agent for the Texas Department of Public Safety in Laredo. "And they're not only looking for people involved in narcotics, but also in legitimate businesses where they can extort money.

"It's a real dangerous situation. People don't really realize how dangerous it is."

Violent drug wars are nothing new in Mexican border cities, where narcotics trafficking is typically controlled by four to six major cartels. The border is the staging area for more than half the $300 billion drug trade with the United States.

For much of the 1990s, the nexus for drug-related violence was Tijuana, where the Arellano-Felix family was accused of killing dozens of law officers, paying as much as $1 million a week in bribes and carrying out most of the city's 200-plus murders every year.

In Nuevo Laredo, drug- related violence began climbing early last year after several high-ranking members of local cartels were arrested or killed. The absence of key drug bosses usually brings a new spasm of violence, as warring groups try to dominate a weakened rival.

The city has become more important to the drug trade in recent years, experts say, because of law enforcement successes in other border areas such as Tijuana. Nuevo Laredo is also Mexico's busiest commercial crossing to the United States, increasing the cartels' chances of smuggling drugs across the Rio Grande.

But the violence reached record proportions in March, when Mexican authorities captured the kingpin of the Gulf Cartel, one of Mexico's most powerful cartels.

Osiel Cardenas was arrested March 14 after a shootout in Matamoros, Cardenas' home base across the border from Brownsville. The Gulf Cartel has operated out of Matamoros for nearly two decades while maintaining a loose hold on Nuevo Laredo.

The Cartel de Milenio, which is based in the states of Jalisco, Coahuila and Tamaulipas, has spent the past few years bringing together elements of several cartels that were fighting with Cardenas. His arrest provided the Cartel de Milenio with an opportunity to raise its profile in Nuevo Laredo, and authorities now believe that it is the Gulf Cartel's main rival in the city.

Officials say the Cartel de Milenio hopes to create a "super-cartel" capable of controlling up to 90 percent of the drug trade along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Cardenas' cartel responded to the threat with squads of ex-military enforcers, known as Los Zetas, who brought a new level of expertise and firepower to the drug war.

"There is a higher level of danger because of the type of knowledge that these people have -- their arms capacity, their knowledge of techniques and specialized narco-trafficking operations," said Luis Astorga, a drug-trade expert at National Autonomous University in Mexico City. "Traffickers traditionally didn't have that. They pay other people for these services."

In turn, Mexico's anti-drug forces are better armed and more specialized than ever before, upping the ante in every confrontation, Astorga said.

In the middle of the struggle are the residents of Nuevo Laredo -- a city so entrenched in the drug war that the local newspaper, El Mañana, recently published an article titled, "Cop or Killer? A Citizen's Guide" after cartel members began masquerading as police officers.

Some local officials lament the violent turn the city has taken and wonder whether the massive police presence will help.

"If this violence is not contained, the people are going to rebel," Councilman Horacio Garza Garza, a former mayor, told La Tarde newspaper this week. "People are tired of so much impunity, so many executions and kidnappings."

Among the most obvious signs of the trouble are the heavily armed members of the city's elite SWAT unit who guard San Jose Hospital -- which, these days, is more likely than not housing a wounded gangster who could either escape from police or be killed by rivals.

Last year, a dozen armed and masked men stormed the emergency room and killed a man in his hospital bed.

"You have to go there for an emergency, and you pass" the officers, said resident Efrain Tomas, who asked that his full name not be used for fear of drawing the attention of the cartels. "But there are people in there who they need to watch."

Flavio Olivares, who works in a downtown bar, said people who aren't involved in the cartels are rarely in danger.

"The problems are between the groups fighting with each other and fighting with the police," he said. "It's a different problem, separate from the rest of us."

Still, the violence has affected life in Nuevo Laredo. Suneson said his business dropped by 80 percent last month, which he attributed to fear.

"The drug wars are hell, and they create havoc," he said. "It affects everybody."

After Cardenas' arrest, stories of violence appeared on the front pages of local newspapers every few days. In April, nine men were massacred in the nearby town of Anahuac. In early July, hitmen killed Nuevo Laredo's commander for the Agencia Federal de Investigaciones, the Mexican version of the FBI.

A dramatic pre-dawn gun battle erupted among federal agents, military troops and at least one of the warring cartels. In 45 minutes, more than 750 rounds were fired in a central plaza. Three suspected cartel members were killed and six were wounded. An armored sport utility vehicle driven by cartel members exploded during the firefight.

Initial reports that federal agents used a bazooka to defend themselves astounded residents, who saw it as a sign that the fighting had reached a higher level. Officials later backed off the assertion, but witnesses insist that it happened.

On Aug. 16, authorities captured key members of the Cartel de Milenio, including its leader, Armando Valencia, and six of his lieutenants. The cartels responded with narco-arson, keeping their rivals on the run by setting fire to their safe houses.

Two luxurious homes owned by Eloy Treviño, who is suspected of being Cartel de Milenio's top assassin, were burned and a third was shot up after his arrest. At the same time, arsonists torched the sprawling home of one of his partners in the town of Miguel Aleman, across the border from Starr County.

In the week after the arrests, firefighters recorded five incidents of drug-related arson in Nuevo Laredo.

Police and real estate officials say more than 50 homes, most of them million-dollar mansions, have been destroyed by fire or gunshots or are now under the control of Mexican anti-drug forces.

The Aug. 16 arrests were a huge victory for anti-drug forces. Valencia was reputedly Mexico's top connection to the powerful Medellin Cartel in Colombia, which Escobar ran until he was killed by Colombian agents in 1993.

American officials have praised Mexican President Vicente Fox's efforts, including heightened cooperation with U.S. investigators, eradication programs targeting crops and the dismantling of entire agencies rife with corruption.

"Mexico is a significant partner for the United States in the elimination of these organizations, and it is a privilege to work with these types of heroes," Karen Tandy, the new chief of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, told reporters in Mexico City last month.

In Nuevo Laredo, authorities are raiding suspected drug houses every week, confiscating high-powered weaponry and stashes of drugs, and conducting their own internal investigations.

But one of local law enforcement's most impressive shows of force against the cartels focused not on enforcement, but on intimidation.

On a recent Friday night, an operation dubbed La Presencia involved some 60 federal, state and local agents in 26 police vehicles -- including pickups filled with men in camouflage carrying machine guns.

Lights flashing, the units snaked through the city streets single file. The operation capped a harrowing week of almost daily fires, kidnappings and slayings. But not a single incident was reported while La Presencia, which is Spanish for "the presence," was in the streets.

Despite two more fires last week at alleged drug houses and the killing or kidnapping of at least six people, some locals say they feel confident that the authorities are regaining control.

The police "came in here and kicked butt, so to speak, and that's exactly what we wanted," Suneson said. "Otherwise, the city's open to the traffickers."

Armando Valencia -- Arrested Aug. 16. Leader of Cartel de Milenio based in Jalisco. Started off working for Amado Carrillo Fuentes, who ran the Juarez Cartel until his death during plastic surgery in 1997. Valencia was believed by U.S. and Mexican officials to be the single strongest link to Colombia's Medellin Cartel of cocaine traffickers. His group was believed to be responsible for as much as one-third of the illegal drugs smuggled into the United States.

Osiel Cardenas -- Arrested March 14. Leader of the powerful Gulf Cartel, based in Matamoros. At least 300 people were working for him, officials believe. Had a $2 million bounty put on his head by U.S. officials and is suspected of being involved in the slaying of four Mexican anti-drug agents in recent months.

Arturo "El Flaco" Peña -- Arrested Aug. 16. Believed to be the Cartel de Milenio's head of operations in Nuevo Leon. Kept at least two homes in Miguel Aleman, across the border from Starr County.

Eloy Treviño -- Arrested Aug. 16. Believed to be the Cartel de Milenio's chief assassin and Valencia's head of operations in Tamaulipas state, where Nuevo Laredo is located. Had several homes in Nuevo Laredo, including safe houses for drugs and traffickers, that were burned or shot up after his arrest. Also had close ties to Guzman and once headed that gang's cell in Nuevo Laredo. Was working with the Juarez Cartel to gain control in Nuevo Laredo after Cardenas' arrest.

Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman -- At large. Leader or main operative of the Cartel of Sinaloa. Protege of Ismael Zambada, an early leader of the Juarez Cartel. Heads a group known as Los Negros, a state faction of the Sinaloa Cartel. Los Negros members fought along with Gulf Cartel operatives against Mexican police and military troops Aug. 1 in Nuevo Laredo. Also has close ties to the Juarez Cartel and was believed to be working with Valencia in part to form a "super-cartel."

Vicente Carrillo Fuentes -- At large. Presumed leader of the Juarez Cartel and brother of Amado Carrillo Fuentes. Faces federal indictments in the United States on charges of ordering the killings of informants for U.S. federal officials and trafficking drugs through El Paso.

Update [October 2003]:

Mexican army deserters start war for control of border city

By Mark Stevenson / Associated Press

NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico -- Members of an elite Mexican army unit have deserted and formed a drug gang, using their military training to launch a violent battle for control of this border city, Mexico's top anti-drug prosecutor said in an interview with The Associated Press.

The war for Nuevo Laredo is unlike other recent drug conflicts -- it's a turf war involving most of Mexico's major cartels in broad alliances not seen in a decade. It has the Mexican army fighting an organized unit of former comrades, and it has cost American lives.

"They are extremely violent, and they are very much feared in the region because of the bloodshed they unleash," Jose Santiago Vasconcelos, Mexico's top anti-drug prosecutor, told AP.

The battles, which have taken 87 lives since 2002, have involved unprecedented alliances among Mexico's drug cartels, according to Nuevo Laredo police commander Martin Landa Herrera.

"I don't think anything like this has happened before in Mexico," he said in an interview. "I have never heard of this many cartels fighting for one piece of territory."

Known as the "Zetas" or "Z"s, the new drug gang -- which appears to have won control of the city -- is led by former members of an elite paratroop and intelligence battalion that was posted to the border state of Tamaulipas in the 1990s to fight drug traffickers.

Vasconcelos said about 31 of the estimated 350 members of the Special Air Mobile Force Group, posted to the border state of Tamaulipas in the 1990s, had deserted and joined the drug turf war.

"They have high-powered weapons, training and intelligence capabilities," Landa Herrera said of the Zetas, whose name comes from the radio code word designating a police commander. "They have even tapped our radio communications. They listen in on us."

The Defense Department has refused to confirm any of its soldiers formed the Zetas. But the army recently began posting wanted posters across the country offering rewards for the deserters, some still pictured in army uniforms. That led to speculation the soldiers were behind the Zetas.

The skirmishing began in 2001 as a dispute among local drug gangs that operated with the permission of reputed Gulf drug cartel leader Osiel Cardenas. By early 2002, the battle had heated up enough that the Zetas appeared, working as hit men for Cardenas in a bid to restore order.

But Cardenas' arrest March 14 during a shootout in the nearby border city of Matamoros opened the floodgates for a wider conflict. With Cardenas in jail, cartels across Mexico -- Michoacan, Ciudad Juarez, Sinaloa and possibly Tijuana -- sensed weakness and tried to move in on the territory.

Escaped Sinaloa drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman reportedly allied himself with the Juarez cartel, sending in gunmen to take over Nuevo Laredo. At the same time, another local trafficker tried to form an alliance with the Valencia cartel, based in the western state of Michoacan. And police even arrested a midlevel operator for the Tijuana-based Arellano Felix cartel in Nuevo Laredo.

Such alliances -- and an all-out war between multiple cartels -- haven't been seen since the wars between Mexican gangs in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

"We're seeing these alliances, but this is just proof of the crisis these gangs are in," Vasconcelos said. "There is no one single group strong enough anymore to dominate the territory."

The Zetas do appear to have the upper hand and are still linked to Cardenas, city police say. While dozens of hired gunslingers from other cartels have died, Vasconcelos said only a few Zetas have been killed and only one or two have been captured.

The Zetas have killed dozens of rival traffickers, trading shots from passing sport utility vehicles on the streets of Nuevo Laredo. In one attack, they engaged in a shootout in broad daylight just yards from where the city's mayor was attending a flag-raising ceremony.

The Zetas sometimes leave their victims' bodies packed in car trunks. In one massacre, they wrote information about a rival gang on a wall above a pile of victims, encouraging police to dismantle the other group.

Nobody has to tell Houston resident Noe Villarreal how vicious the war has become. On Sept. 27, a commando of at least 30 masked men carrying assault rifles kidnapped his brother -- Hayward, Calif., businessman Juan Villarreal Garcia -- from his Mexico home in Sabinas Hidalgo, a town south of Nuevo Laredo.

The gunmen had fanned out across the town in search of a rival. They killed two policemen, kidnapped seven people, burst into Villarreal's home -- in a possible case of mistaken identity -- and dragged the 78-year-old tortilla-store owner away.

The other hostages were released soon afterward, but Villarreal remains missing and is presumed dead. The area is so violent that nobody is sure who kidnapped him or why.

"I don't know if it was the Zetas," said Noe Villarreal, "because the Zetas have never released anyone alive. That's not their style."

It wouldn't be the first time that Americans have died in the conflict.

A wild pre-dawn battle on Aug. 1 in Nuevo Laredo left at least three dead -- one of them a man from Laredo, Texas -- and six wounded. Police and army troops exchanged fire with cars believed to be carrying drug traffickers.

The three were killed when their SUV exploded after police bullets hit the vehicle's gas tank.

And in June 2001, a couple from Laredo, Texas, -- Sylvia Solis and Juan Villagomez -- were kidnapped by drug traffickers, although it is unclear why. She was raped and strangled. He was beaten and buried alive.

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