Pubdate: Wed, 24 Nov 1999 Source: New York Times (NY) Copyright: 1999 The New York Times Company Contact: http://www.nytimes.com/ Forum: http://www10.nytimes.com/comment/ Author: Tim Golden HEAD TO HEAD IN MEXICO: D.E.A. AGENTS AND SUSPECTS Two American drug-enforcement agents who had been driving around a Mexican border city with an informer were chased, surrounded and nearly killed two weeks ago by a posse of suspected drug traffickers and their heavily armed bodyguards, United States and Mexican officials said Tuesday. After a standoff that lasted for nearly 20 minutes on a busy street in downtown Matamoros, just across the Texas border from Brownsville, the agents finally talked their way to safety by identifying themselves and warning the traffickers that they would never be allowed to get away with murdering American agents. "This was very, very close," said a United States official with detailed knowledge of the incident, on Nov. 9. "It was as close as you can get without a funeral." At least some of the traffickers' bodyguards, who trained AK-47 rifles and other weapons on the Americans throughout the standoff, were wearing jackets that identified them as members of the Tamaulipas state police, officials said. In a statement, the Drug Enforcement Administration said Mexican state police officers appeared to have been in the group. A senior Mexican official said the presence of state police officers had not been corroborated. The official, Mariano Herran Salvatti, director of the Mexican drug enforcement agency, said in a telephone interview from Mexico City that Mexican officials had responded immediately to the incident. "This investigation is being carried out with all the intensity that a situation like this requires," Herran said. United States officials described the case as probably the most serious threat against American antidrug agents in Mexico since one agent, Enrique S. Camarena, was tortured to death by traffickers in 1985. The two governments agreed last year on new rules to bar agents from conducting any undercover operations without explicit Mexican permission and supervision. But the governments have failed to resolve how the agents should protect themselves. American agents are not supposed to carry guns or conduct law-enforcement operations in Mexico. Although one official said the agents in Matamoros, one from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and one from the Drug Enforcement Administration, were apparently carrying guns in their car, they did not draw their weapons. Other United States officials refused to comment on whether the agents were armed. The agents were stationed in Monterrey in northern Mexico as part of program that both countries consider crucial to the success of their efforts to combat the biggest drug-trafficking gangs in Mexico. In Matamoros, the two agents were investigating Osiel Cardenas Guillen, believed by American drug-intelligence officials to have emerged as the biggest trafficker along the Gulf Coast. At about 2:30 p.m. on Nov. 9, the agents were driving around a residential area with the informer, checking places said to be frequented by Cardenas and his associates, when they noticed another vehicle apparently following them. Soon, the officials said, the agents detected a second vehicle, and then a third. The agents sped up and made a turn, but were quickly surrounded by pickups and other vehicles with groups of heavily armed men. As the agents frantically dialed a state police commander from a cellular telephone, the officials recounted, one truck blocked the agents' sedan and forced them to halt. From a caravan of eight vehicles, officials said, 12 to 15 men jumped out exhibiting their guns and demanding that the men leave their car, which had consular license plates. The agents refused, flashing identification and rolling down their windows a crack to identify themselves as American officials. The director of the group, whom one agent recognized as Cardenas, recognized the informer and had the head of his security detail, a man with a gold-plated AK-47, demand that the agents turn over the informer. When the agents again refused, officials said, the gunmen took a step back, trained their rifles on the car and appeared about to fire. Shouting at the gunmen to wait, the agents then reportedly conceded that they were American law-enforcement officials and pleaded, telling the gunmen that it would be a grave mistake to fire. Finally, an official said, the man identified as Cardenas waved off the men, reportedly telling the agents: "You gringos. This is my territory. You can't control it. So get the hell out of here!" The three drove straight to the border and have not returned to Mexico, officials said. They telephoned American officials, and word of the incident was immediately communicated to high-level officials of both countries, who were coincidentally meeting that afternoon in Washington. - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D