Pubdate: Mon, 30 Sep 2002 Source: Dallas Morning News (TX) Copyright: 2002 The Dallas Morning News Contact: http://www.dallasnews.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/117 Author: Ricardo Sandoval,The Dallas Morning News U.S.-MEXICO ALLIANCE AGAINST DRUGS STALLS Blacklisting Of Baja Hotel, Other Conflicts Stalling Cooperation ROSARITO, Mexico - It was supposed to be an example of how well the United States and Mexico were waging the war together on illegal drugs. Instead, Rosarito's Oasis Hotel and Convention Center, on a wide swath of smooth beach 15 miles south of Tijuana, represents one of the cracks that have emerged on the unified front against traffickers. Last winter, the Oasis and seven other Baja California companies allegedly run by the Tijuana-based Arellano Felix drug organization were blacklisted. American officials - led by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets - were so convinced that the hotel laundered drug money that they openly warned Americans against visiting or investing in the hotel. Nine months later, no further legal action has been taken by American authorities. And Mexican officials still have no charges pending against the hotel. The unilateral U.S. action is allowed under the so-called Kingpin Act of 1998. It calls for economic sanctions against firms that U.S. investigators believe to be fronts for traffickers. Americans are threatened with fines for doing business with companies on the kingpin list. But the Oasis action has galled many Mexicans who believe the U.S. government is unfairly branding foreign companies without publicly stating evidence of criminal wrongdoing. The Oasis' California-based lawyers called it an alarming lack of due process. FRED GREAVES / SPECIAL TO DMN Jeanne Maxwell watches her grandchildren play in the pool at the Baja's Oasis Hotel. Some Americans have said they're ignoring the threat of fines for visiting the blacklisted hotel. Some American visitors to the hotel railed against what they called an arbitrary action and said they would ignore the threat of fines. (U.S. officials said that it is not practical to fine everyone who stays at the hotel and that kingpin designation is meant to prevent Americans from investing in the hotel or extending it credit.) Even some American law enforcement officials - while convinced that the hotel is indeed a drug-money laundering front - said privately that action against the Oasis was perhaps premature since it was not followed by quick criminal indictments. Calls to officials in the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets were not returned. The binational disconnect over the Oasis is one of several recent disagreements that have stalled U.S.-Mexico law enforcement cooperation. Mexican officials are still smarting over recent comments from the DEA that Mexico has not done enough and is vulnerable to narco-terrorism, despite an impressive string of drug arrests and knocking the Arellano Felix family from the trafficking pinnacle. Hotel crippled The net result of this dispute is that the Oasis is crippled. The hotel, with its white Taj Mahal-like domes and arches, has been a fixture here for 15 years. Although many considered it too loud a structure - - misplaced on a rustic Mexican beach - the Oasis was a player in a thriving tourism industry in Rosarito, a busy beach resort dominated by weekend tourists from California, and Fox Studios' Baja. Titanic is among the Hollywood blockbusters that have been filmed here. But right after the U.S. government's kingpin action, Fox Studios stopped housing visiting employees at the Oasis. Hotel operators said they had to return $450,000 in deposits from dozens of American companies that withdrew convention reservations. At last count, 70 people - almost half the full-time staff - have been laid off. American individuals still come for the ample, tidy pools and a prized stretch of beachfront. But Oasis managers said business is down by half from a year ago. Upkeep on the grounds is slipping; paint is chipping and bathroom fixtures are leaking; and lights throughout the complex flicker with increasing frequency. No formal charges Despite the public words against the hotel, no formal drug money-laundering charges have been filed against the Oasis. U.S. law enforcement officials said they're gathering more evidence against the owners. The Oasis appears to have received the kingpin tag because of Miguel Aguirre Galindo, who is the son of the principal owner and who was indicted two decades ago in California on drug charges, a DEA official said. U.S. drug agents say he is a ranking operative in the Arellano Felix organization. "So charge them, or get off their backs," said David Burriel, a visitor from Northern California who recently stopped at the hotel for a break from an overland tour of Baja, and said he had no idea there was such a stigma on the hotel. "If our country is so worried about drug money corrupting people, why aren't we going after big banks in our country? Why worry about this modest hotel, when we have corruption of Enron proportions that are far more dangerous to our country?" Oasis owners, through their lawyers, insist that no one from the U.S. government has ever contacted them to discuss the kingpin designation. Who is alleged kingpin? "We don't even know who the alleged kingpin is here," said Charles Goldberg, a San Diego-based lawyer for the Oasis. "We've requested documentation and reports, but no one has explained the government's action to us. ... All we know is that this has been a terrible burden for the hotel and its employees." Mr. Goldberg promised a lawsuit, soon, to get the hotel off the government's dirty-money list. While the case against the Oasis advances slowly, it has quickly opened up other areas of discord between U.S. and Mexican soldiers in the drug war. The two countries agree that cooperation in the fight against traffickers is unprecedented and that anti-crime gains made by Mexican President Vicente Fox are concrete. But the DEA fears Mexico may be unjustifiably at rest after the death earlier this year of drug baron Ramon Arellano Felix and the arrest of his brother, Benjamin. The void, drug agents fear, may be filled by emerging drug lords more willing to resort to Colombia-style narco-terrorism to keep pushing drugs through Mexico. Already one gang in Mexico City put local politicians on a hit list - and assassinated some police officials - before federal authorities moved in to arrest its leaders, including a middle-aged woman dubbed "Ma Baker." Can't rest in drug war "The war on drugs is not really a war. Wars eventually end. This is more like a battle that never ends," said an American law enforcement official, who asked not to be identified. "It's like taking out the garbage. You do it one day, and by the next, the trash has built up and you have to take it out again. ... Mexico can't rest." Mexican authorities agreed the drug fight is not over, but they rejected the notion that they face an imminent narco-terrorism threat. The United States has every right to discuss narco-terrorism, said Patricia Olamendi, the ranking anti-trafficking official in Mexico's Foreign Ministry, in a recent talk with reporters. "But ... saying that narco-terrorism is taking root here [is] to me adventuresome and worsens the perception of a climate of insecurity." Ms. Olamendi was reacting to recent comments by DEA chief Asa Hutchinson that Mexico could be as vulnerable to narco-terrorism as Colombia. His remarks came soon after U.S. drug czar John Walters had praised Mexico for actually having done more of late to fight trafficking than the United States. Amid the sharp Mexican reaction, Mr. Walters - whose official title is director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy - met privately with Mr. Hutchinson. Mr. Walters emerged saying that he and Mr. Hutchinson were on the same page as their Mexican counterparts and that the DEA chief had been misquoted. "We all agree that the game is not over," Mr. Walters said in a recent interview in Tijuana. "But what the Mexican government has done is put up a tough, engaged effort." Mexico "has gone after different organizations on as many levels as possible and destabilized them," he said. More DEA agents Despite assurances that Mexico is battling traffickers, the DEA is moving ahead with controversial plans to bolster its presence in Mexico. The agency soon will assign 17 new agents to smaller U.S. consular offices in Mexico, near the border, where there is no American law enforcement presence. The justification is the unending fight against the thousands of smugglers who, despite the Mexican crackdowns and U.S. vigilance, move tons of drugs across the border and onto American streets. The intensifying war on drugs was the last thing on the mind of Janel Noa as she lounged by a large pool at the Oasis. While her children splashed and screamed with delight in a baby pool, Ms. Noa said she was sad the hotel was crumbling in the wake of the U.S. government's action. "It's been a great place for the kids," Ms. Noa said. "The warning not to come here doesn't bother me. Everyone here has been kind to us, and the rates are good for a family. Besides, why are we so worried about this hotel? Wasn't Las Vegas built by the Mafia? Look how well it's doing." - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom