MEXICO: FAMILY & FRIENDS MOURN DEATH OF DRUG LORD CARRILLO

Описание: (12 Jul 1997) Spanish/Nat

Family and friends are mourning top Mexican drug lord Amado Carrillo Fuentes as officials investigated an unconfirmed report that he was murdered in his hospital bed last week by an overdose of medicine.

A local priest led a private Catholic Mass inside Carrillo's luxury ranch in his hometown of Guamuchilito.

Carrillo - known as the "Lord of the Skies" - died in a Mexico City hospital after he underwent extensive plastic surgery and liposuction to conceal his identity.

For one of the world's most powerful drug lords, it was a simple funeral: family, a few neighbours, some childhood friends.

The Mexican town of Guamuchilito is mourning the death of drug kingpin Amado Carrillo Fuentes.

Priests celebrated a burial Mass in the family chapel, and mourners sang hymns and recited the Rosary every half hour.

Carrillo died on July 4 hours after he apparently underwent plastic surgery and liposuction at a Mexico City hospital.

His body was flown to his hometown Thursday night.

Neighbours were shocked and saddened by news of his death.

SOUNDBITE: (Spanish)
"People always spoke well of him, he was good to people."
Q: What did he do around here?
"Well the only building he had built was the church."
SUPER CAPTION: Mercedes Garcia, neighbour

Many drug lords come from poor backgrounds, and when they make their fortunes from drug trafficking, they bestow gifts upon their communities.

Other drug traffickers have built schools, hospitals and football pitches in their neighbourhoods.

On Friday family and friends passed through the gates of the family home here, northwest of Mexico City.

Mystery shrouds the death of Carrillo.

Positive confirmation of the body's identity came only after a series of tests that included D-N-A and fingerprinting.

And now the authorities are investigating reports that the drug lord's death could have been caused by homicide or medical malpractice.

About 40 soldiers in battle gear patrolled a gravel road near the family compound, their weapons drawn.

Troops and anti-drug agents searched mourners for weapons as they entered the compound.

Carrillo was considered one of the most influential figures in Mexican drug trafficking.

He was nicknamed "Lord of the Skies" for his tactic of air shipping cocaine from Colombia into Mexico to smuggle into the United States.

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