Pubdate: Thu, 26 Mar 1998 Source: Chicago Tribune (IL) Section: 1, page 18 Contact: http://www.chicago.tribune.com/ Author: New York Times News Service U.S. SEES DEEP MEXICAN ARMY TIES TO DRUGS For a year the Clinton administration has presented the stunning arrest of Mexico's drug-enforcement chief as proof of that government's strong will to fight corruption. But now U.S. analysts have concluded that the case shows much wider military involvement with drug traffickers than Mexican authorities have acknowledged. According to an extensive classified report by the Drug Enforcement Administration and other intelligence assessments, the arrest last year of the former official, Gen. Jesus Gutierrez Rebollo, came after secret meetings between Mexican army officers and Mexico's biggest drug mafia, officials say. Exactly what transpired remains unclear. But the officials say there is growing evidence that military officers discussed a deal to let the drug gang operate in exchange for huge bribes and that some such arrangement may have been in place before the gang's leader, Amado Carrillo Fuentes, died after extensive plastic surgery last year. The Gutierrez Rebollo case initially raised fears that he might have passed sensitive intelligence to members of Carrillo Fuentes' gang. But U.S. officials say it now points to the possible collusion of military officials who are central to U.S. drug-enforcement efforts in Mexico. "The bottom line is that all this goes a lot deeper than we thought," said one senior official. If the indications of wider military involvement with traffickers are borne out, another official said, "it points to much of our work in Mexico being an exercise in futility." Some intelligence officials have questioned aspects of the report, officials said, describing them as speculative. But drug-enforcement officials presented it to Atty. Gen. Janet Reno and other senior officials Feb. 6, one year to the day after Gutierrez Rebollo was arrested on the orders of the Mexican defense minister. Beyond that, officials say the report has been very closely held because of the sensitivity of the intelligence and the volatility of the politics that surround it. With strong U.S. support, President Ernesto Zedillo brought the military into law enforcement in 1996 because it was seen as the only alternative to the country's deeply corrupt police. A month ago, as part of its annual evaluation of narcotics control efforts abroad, the administration assured Congress that Mexico was "fully cooperating." But a Senate discussion of two resolutions to overturn that endorsement could begin as early as Thursday. U.S. officials have been reluctant to confront Mexican leaders with their new assessment. In part, they say, their unease has to do with still-significant gaps in the story. But they also fear that such a challenge could imperil largely secret anti-drug programs with which the CIA and the Pentagon have been trying to build closer ties to a neighboring army that has long been deeply suspicious of the U.S. The director of White House drug policy, Gen. Barry McCaffrey, said he would not discuss the intelligence reports other than to confirm that they had been scrutinized very closely. Mexican Defense Ministry officials have angrily denied the few sketchy reports that have surfaced so far about negotiations between generals and traffickers. After Gutierrez Rebollo testified at his trial last September that such meetings had taken place, military officials acknowledged that several generals did indeed meet with a top lieutenant of Carrillo Fuentes. But they insisted that the man had used an alias and that the officers did not know he was a trafficker. "The claim that there were any other meetings is false," said Gen. Tomas Angeles Dauahare, a top aide to the Mexican defense minister. He described the allegations as "lies, slander and infamy" generated by Gutierrez Rebollo in an attempt to save himself.