DEATH BY MAKE-OVER

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However pressured his life became, Carrillo died at the height of his power. Forging important alliances with Colombia's Cali drug cartel in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Carrillo pioneered the use of Boeing 727s and cargo aircraft to move tons of cocaine from South America to Mexico, where supplies were then shipped and trucked across the U.S. border. More significant, Carrillo demanded that the Colombians pay him in white powder rather than cash. This allowed him to set up vast U.S. distribution networks of his own. With most of the Cali dons imprisoned since 1995, Carrillo had become the single most important force in the American cocaine market. DEA agents believe his organization currently grosses $4 million to $5 million a day.

Even the greatest drug lord's death is not expected to curtail the influx of cocaine into the U.S. "I don't see a big change in trafficking," said James Milford, the DEA's deputy administrator. "All our sources tell us it's business as usual. This guy didn't die in a power struggle but suffered a sudden death when most people in his organization were getting along." Even if the Carrillo organization were to splinter, there is neither a shortage of product nor dearth of entrepreneurs eager to exploit the U.S. cocaine market.

Responding last week to a lengthy New York Times investigation of grave lapses in U.S. efforts to curb Mexican drug smuggling, the White House drug-policy chief, General Barry McCaffrey, told the paper that he had recently begun an effort to build "a newly defined architecture" for the disparate agencies engaged in the narcotics war. A better reason for optimism in the fight is that Carrillo is unlikely to be replaced by anyone as skilled as he was. For the time being, his younger brother Vicente, 34, is expected to run operations. "Carrillo was a force to be reckoned with," says special agent Ernest Howard, who is in charge of the DEA office in Houston. "He was a visionary. A visionary can be replaced, but not by anybody who comes along."

--Reported by Elaine Shannon/Washington