Source:   Associated Press

By ANITA SNOW 

MEXICO CITY (AP)  Mexico is overhauling its troubled drugfighting program,
creating a new agency, setting up an organized crime unit and  in the days
before President Clinton's visit  beefing up field operations. 

On Wednesday, police confiscated 10.7 tons of cocaine in a truck heading
toward the U.S. border in the largest seizure in Mexico since 1990. Clinton
is to arrive on May 5 for a threeday visit. 

U.S. officials say they are pleased with Mexico's renewed antidrug efforts,
and are confident they now have a core group of Mexican agents they can trust
on sensitive cases. But they warn much more needs to be done. 

Widespread corruption still runs through Mexican law enforcement agencies,
and counternarcotics agents are especially vulnerable to bribes because of
the large amounts of money traffickers spend for protection. 

Mexico's new antidrug agency will replace the corruptionridden National
Institute for the Combat of Drugs. A U.S. official said on condition of
anonymity that it will open in the next several weeks. 

The new agency  its name has not been announced  will be led by a special
prosecutor who will report to the attorney general. 

For months, U.S. officials have been quietly suggesting that Mexico replace
the institute. 

A panel of leading Mexican jurists recommended the move this month, telling
President Ernesto Zedillo that the 3yearold institute ``has been in an
advanced state of deterioration ever since it was founded.'' 

The institute's head, army Gen. Jesus Gutierrez Rebollo, was fired in
February after authorities charged him with being on the payroll of Mexico's
No. 1 cocaine trafficker, Amado Carrillo Fuentes. 

Mexico vowed to revamp its drug fighting effort after the embarrassing arrest
of Gutierrez Rebollo, which came just weeks before the deadline for Clinton
to recommend to Congress whether to recertify Mexico as a drugfighting
country worthy of continued U.S. aid. 

Mexico was recertified after contentious debate by American lawmakers. 

American law enforcement agencies have been training small groups of Mexican
agents they hope will bolster the joint campaign against illegal drugs, the
New York Times reported Thursday. 

The unit described by the Times appears to be the new organized crime unit,
which U.S. officials say began operating in the Mexican capital several
months ago. 

The unit, which will report directly to the attorney general, focuses on
drugrelated crimes such as money laundering and the trafficking of precursor
chemicals used to manufacture narcotics, the U.S. official said. 

It was established by a new antiracketeering law that set up a witness
protection program, authorizes wiretaps on suspects' telephones and lets
prosecutors try suspects under broader crimes such as conspiracy. Its
45member staff eventually is expected to grow to 115. 

Prospective agents for the new agency are undergoing drug and psychological
tests as well as extensive background, financial and even polygraph tests,
the U.S. official said. It will employ up to 1,500 agents. 

Mexico has been conducting widespread roadside inspections over the last two
years to search for stolen vehicles, illegal weapons and drugs. Authorities
said they were intensifying field operations before Clinton's visit. 

The huge cocaine load was seized Wednesday at a checkpoint in San Fernando,
about 110 miles south of the border town of Reynosa. Authorities originally
estimated its weight at several tons less than what it turned out to be when
it was weighed Thursday, the attorney general's office said.