Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Contact:  http://www.sfgate.com/cronicle/
Copyright: 1998 San Francisco Chronicle
Author: Molly Moore, Douglas Farah
Pubdate: Mon, 14 Dec 1998

HUGE MEXICAN DRUG CARTEL COMMANDS CANCUN AREA

For several months this year, a Mexican army lieutenant trained by the CIA
was leading the most sensitive anti-narcotics investigation in Mexico. He
was pursuing tips that he believed tied a powerful drug kingpin to the
governor of the Yucatan state that includes the lavish beach resort of
Cancun and its $2 billion tourist industry.

On June 2, as the lieutenant pulled up to a traffic light during a midnight
surveillance operation, he was surrounded by local police, dragged from his
car and tortured for several hours by henchmen of Ramon Alcides Magana,
known as El Metro, the most powerful drug trafficker on the Yucatan
peninsula, according to U.S. and Mexican law-enforcement.

When CIA and Mexican military authorities received word of the kidnapping
- -- which happened while the lieutenant was tailing Alcides Magana --
Mexico's defense secretary sent armored vehicles to surround the Mexico
City house of the alleged drug trafficker's wife, threatening to open fire
unless Alcides Magana released the lieutenant.

The lieutenant -- a member of a secretive, CIA-trained and organized
Mexican anti-narcotics intelligence unit at the vanguard of the American
anti-drug effort in Mexico -- was freed. But the same night as his
abduction, according to Mexican law-enforcement officials, his office was
robbed of all the documents that supported his investigation, including
explosive details of allegations that one of El Metro's main protectors is
Mario Villanueva Madrid, the governor of the Yucatan state of Quintana Roo.

``Quintana Roo has become the first narco-state in Mexico,'' said a U.S.
official familiar with both U.S. and Mexican anti-drug investigations in
the state.

The kidnapping incident underscores not only the expanding reach and
brazenness of Mexican drug traffickers, but the increasing frustration of
investigators in both countries, who complain that their probes are being
blocked by some of Mexico's highest-ranking elected officials.

The incident -- and the allegations that Mexico's most powerful drug cartel
has the protection of a state governor -- also is likely to figure in
whether the United States recertifies Mexico in the coming months as a
cooperative partner in the fight against drugs, according to officials in
both nations.

The White House is required to make that determination annually.
Decertification would be enormously costly to Mexico in terms of
international prestige as well as U.S. financial assistance. Over the past
several years, however, the White House has resisted pressure from the U.S.
Drug Enforcement Administration to withhold certification from Mexico, one
of the United States' largest trading partners.

The Yucatan peninsula is one of the biggest drug-trafficking gateways to
the United States, with Mexico's most powerful drug mafia, the Juarez
cartel, recently establishing a huge base of operations in Quintano Roo.

At least four Mexican anti-drug agencies and the DEA have investigated
charges that the Juarez cartel receives protection at every level of
government in the state, including the local police, the Mexican military
force assigned to the region, and Governor Villanueva.

Villanueva, whose term expires in April, has denied that he has connections
to drug trafficking and has blamed the allegations on political enemies in
both opposition parties and his own ruling party.

``His position has been very clear,'' said Roberto Andrade, the governor's
spokesman. ``He has demanded the proper investigations be made. He says
that he is clean.''

The 50-year-old governor is under investigation by Mexico's federal
attorney general, organized-crime unit, military narcotics intelligence
unit and anti-drug agency, which several weeks ago conducted an hours-long
voluntary interrogation of the governor, according to law enforcement
officials. No formal allegations have been made by any of the organizations
and no charges have been filed against Villanueva.

``Knowing and proving are two different things,'' said a U.S. official
familiar with the investigations.

Mexican authorities are investigating bank accounts in the Cayman Islands,
the Bahamas and Mexico that authorities believe are controlled by
Villanueva and may have links to drug proceeds, according to an internal
Mexican law enforcement document obtained by the Washington Post.

U.S. and Mexican investigators are focusing on allegations that Villanueva
was paid to protect trafficking operations. Last month, federal authorities
dismissed the entire private security force at Cancun's international
airport for allegedly allowing cocaine shipments from South America to
transit the airport.

U.S. and Mexican officials said state police as well as military troops
assigned to Quintana Roo routinely permit passage of drug shipments that
arrive on the beaches by boat, at clandestine airstrips and overland though
neighboring Belize and Guatemala.

U.S. authorities, particularly anti-narcotics officials involved in making
recommendations on the drug certification of Mexico, say they are dismayed
by the impunity with which the cartel and its leaders operate in the Cancun
area.

- ---
Checked-by: Joel W. Johnson