American Notes DRUGS

Law-enforcement officials in both Colombia and the U.S. warned last week that a feud between drug lords based in the Colombian cities of Medellin and Cali is not only getting bloodier at home but has spread north to New York City. Its cause, they say, is a drive by the Medellin cartel to muscle into the New York cocaine market long controlled by the mobsters from Cali.

The rival groups agreed years ago that the Medellin dealers would monopolize Miami and the Cali clan would control the New York trade. But the popularity of crack has expanded the more profitable New York traffic and apparently shattered the deal. One ominous result is that both Robert M. Stutman, head of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration office in New York, and Sterling Johnson, New York City's special narcotics prosecutor, say they have learned that the Medellin cartel has hired gunmen to kill them. Says Stutman: "We get very angry at this type of thing."