Pubdate: Thu, 04 Apr 2002 Source: Associated Press (Wire) Copyright: 2002 Associated Press MEXICAN KINGPIN CHARGES DISMISSED TOLUCA, Mexico (AP) - A judge dismissed charges that the accused head of Mexico's largest drug smuggling gang had a hand in the 1993 killing of a Roman Catholic cardinal. Judge Leopaldo Ceron said late Thursday that prosecutors failed to provide sufficient evidence that Benjamin Arellano Felix was involved in the slaying of Cardinal Juan Jesus Posadas Ocampo, who died in a hail of gunfire at the airport in the western city of Guadalajara on May 24, 1993. In a court appearance Tuesday, Arellano Felix told one of Ceron's assistants that he "had nothing to do with" Posadas Ocampo's death. Arellano Felix's brother, Francisco Rafael, is in a maximum security prison outside Mexico City, serving time for his role in Posadas Ocampo's slaying. Prosecutors had alleged that the cardinal was killed in the crossfire of a shootout between Benjamin and Francisco Rafael Arellano Felix and members of a rival drug gang. But Ceron said that while witnesses placed Francisco Rafael at the scene of the shooting, no one came forward to say they had seen Benjamin Arellano Felix at the airport at the time of the cardinal's death. Ceron also threw out several weapons charges and dismissed a charge of cocaine possession against Arellano Felix. The judge ruled that authorities did not obtain proper warrants before discovering weapons and drugs in a string of homes that allegedly belonging to Arellano Felix and his associates. Prosecutors said that they would appeal Ceron's rulings. Arellano Felix remained behind bars and still faces dozens of far more serious drugs and organized crime charges. Before his capture last month, police say Arellano Felix ran the day-to-day operations of a drug smuggling syndicate that bore his family's name and helped move tons of cocaine and marijuana through the border city of Tijuana and into the western United States. - --- MAP posted-by: Josh