Pubdate: Tue, 09 June 1998
Source: Seattle Times (WA) 
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Website: http://www.seattletimes.com/  
Author: Stanley Meisler and Jonathan Peterson, Los Angeles Times

NO U.S.-MEXICO TRUCE OVER DRUG-MONEY STING

UNITED NATIONS - After exchanging barbs in public over a controversial U.S.
sting operation in Mexico, President Clinton and Mexican President Ernesto
Zedillo met in private yesterday and issued a statement pledging "improved
cooperation and mutual trust with full respect for the sovereignty of both
nations."

But the statement contained no American apology for Operation Casablanca,
the money-laundering sting, nor any Mexican promise to refrain from trying
to prosecute U.S. operatives who carried it out.

Clinton told a special summit of the U.N. General Assembly that the argument
between countries that produce drugs and countries that consume drugs "has
gone on too long" and must end.

"Let's be frank," Clinton said, "this debate has not advanced the fight
against drugs. Pointing fingers is distracting. It does not dismantle a
single cartel, help a single addict, prevent a single child from trying and
perhaps dying from heroin."

But Zedillo, in a speech tinged with bitterness over the covert U.S.
operation that led to the arrest of 150 Mexican bank employees last month,
said that, in the war on drugs, all countries "must respect the sovereignty
of each nation."

"No one should feel entitled to violate the laws of other countries for the
sake of enforcing its own," he said.

Zedillo, hailed by Clinton and other leaders for conceiving the idea of the
special session on how to combat narcotics, was referring to Mexican charges
that U.S. agents broke Mexican law by staging the operation in Mexico.

At an earlier news conference, U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno defended the
secrecy of the operation as a means to protect the American operatives. "It
is not a matter of disrespect," she said. "It is a matter of trying to . . .
conduct an investigation . . . while at the same time protecting the lives
of the agents involved."

Mexican officials have chastised the United States for violating their laws
by conducting a 2 1/2-year undercover investigation that culminated in the
arrests of more than 150 people and the seizure of more than $50 million.
Last month, a federal grand jury in Los Angeles indicted 26 Mexican bankers
and three banks with money laundering.

Twenty-nine heads of state and government are to address the General
Assembly before its 185 members tomorrow adopt a declaration committing them
to "strategies to reduce both the illicit supply and demand of drugs."

Clinton has pledged to halve drug use in the United States, the world's
leading drug consumer, by 2007. He announced yesterday that he would ask
Congress to extend through 2002 a public-private partnership that urges
children to stay off drugs.

White House officials said that the president would seek $195 million from
the federal government and that the private sector would foot the rest of
the $2 billion bill.

His administration also is working to use the Internet and satellite links
to allow drug fighters to share information, Clinton said. Information from
Knight Ridder Newspapers is included in this report.

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Checked-by: Melodi Cornett