Pubdate: Thursday, 8 April 1999 
Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Copyright: 1999 San Francisco Chronicle
Contact:  http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/
Forum: http://www.sfgate.com/conferences/
Author: Molly Moore, Washington Post

HUGE DRUG CORRUPTION CASE IN MEXICO 

Charges filed against former governor, more than 100 officials

In one of the biggest narcotics corruption cases in Mexican history,
authorities have ordered the arrest of a former governor of the state
of Quintana Roo and more than 100 public officials and others on
charges that they worked for the country's most powerful drug cartel.

Mexico's attorney general ordered the arrest of Mario Villanueva on
Tuesday night, 24 hours after his term in office ended and 10 days
after Villanueva apparently went into hiding.

Attorney General Jorge Madrazo said the arrest order against the
former governor is part of a wide-ranging investigation into the
country's most powerful drug mafia, the Juarez cartel, which has been
using Quintana Roo as its primary gateway for importing cocaine from
Colombia.

Arrest warrants for involvement in drug trafficking also were issued
against more than 100 others, including federal police and prosecutors
working in Quintana Roo, ``who provided protection to drug
traffickers, often with the complicity of state officials,'' according
to a lengthy statement issued by Madrazo's office. A spokesman for the
office declined yesterday to say whether any of the suspects had been
taken into custody.

U.S. and Mexican authorities are investigating numerous bank accounts
around the world held in the name of Villanueva, his associates or
family members, including a Swiss bank account that reportedly
contains $73 million.

Law enforcement agencies in Mexico and the United States are also
investigating allegations that the Juarez cartel laundered millions of
dollars through hotels, restaurants and other businesses in Quintana
Roo's luxury resort of Cancun, one of Mexico's most popular
destinations for American tourists.

Authorities have said Villanueva is being investigated for allegations
that he received millions in payoffs from the cartel for letting it
operate freely in his state. Villanueva has said that Mexican
authorities also accuse him of using cocaine and permitting drug
traffickers to use state-owned airplane hangars to transfer cocaine.

The announcement of the arrest warrants followed more than a year of
intensive investigations by Mexican anti-drug agencies and the U.S.
Drug Enforcement Agency. Villanueva, who was immune from criminal
prosecution until the end of his gubernatorial term, was the highest-
ranking elected official ever pursued by authorities for drug
trafficking while still in office.

But Villanueva, 50, a member of the party's old guard who has engaged
in open political warfare with President Ernesto Zedillo, has charged
that the drug investigation against him is a political vendetta.
Zedillo is the leader of a rival faction in the ruling Institutional
Revolutionary Party.

On Tuesday, the morning before the arrest order was announced and more
than a week after Villanueva dropped from public view, he purchased
full-page advertisements in Mexico City's most prominent daily
newspapers and declared: ``I am not a criminal. I am being persecuted

for strictly political reasons.''

He refused to state his whereabouts, saying only, ``I have been forced
to . . . abandon my land to avoid being jailed.''

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