Pubdate: Thu, 08 Apr 1999
Source: Philadelphia Inquirer (PA)
Copyright: 1999 Philadelphia Newspapers Inc.
Contact:  http://www.phillynews.com/
Forum: http://interactive.phillynews.com/talk-show/
Author: Ricardo Sandoval, Knight Ridder News Service

MEXICO BEGINS GLOBAL MANHUNT FOR FUGITIVE EX-GOVERNOR

MEXICO CITY  -- Mexico launched a worldwide search yesterday for a
fugitive former governor who allegedly helped drug smugglers move tons
of cocaine to the United States via Mexico's Caribbean coast.

Hours after Attorney General Jorge Madrazo issued an arrest warrant
for Mario Villanueva, whose six-year term as governor of the state of
Quintana Roo ended Monday, Mexican prosecutors said they had asked
other countries and Interpol to help search for the missing politician.

Madrazo did not specify the charges against Villanueva, 51. He said
only that the case against Villanueva and five unnamed coconspirators
centered on racketeering and aiding drug traffickers.

The charges stem from testimony by at least 15 witnesses that
Villanueva was deeply involved with crime cartels that are running
increasing amounts of illegal drugs through Quintana Roo and are said
to be laundering money through hotels and other businesses in the
state's most popular resort town, Cancun.

Financial crime investigators in Mexico continue to look for offshore
bank accounts allegedly controlled by Villanueva that are believed to
be worth at least $73 million. The average salary for a Mexican
governor is $72,000 a year, according to government statistics.

Prosecutors also said yesterday that they had issued 100 arrest
warrants for alleged members of the Juarez and Gulf drug cartels and
their alleged police accomplices. Those criminal organizations are
said to be shipping Colombian cocaine through Quintana Roo to street
dealers in New York, Chicago, Houston and Los Angeles.

"In many cases, these criminals acted with the complicity of local
authorities" in Quintana Roo, Madrazo said.

The request for help abroad in apprehending Villanueva appears to
confirm what crime experts have feared since he was last seen in
public on March 26: that he has fled the country, leaving behind
befuddled prosecutors who supposedly were keeping a close watch on the
onetime rising star in Mexico's ruling Institutional Revolutionary
Party, known by its Spanish acronym, PRI.

Villanueva, in an "open letter" to Mexican newspapers this week, said
he had "abandoned my turf to avoid being jailed" as a consequence of
what he described as politically motivated harassment based on "absurd
and ridiculous" accusations. He did not say where he was writing from.

Madrazo, under growing criticism for not having acted sooner, said
that until Villanueva's term as governor ended, Villanueva enjoyed
constitutional protection against criminal prosecution.

Critics were unconvinced, saying Villanueva's legal immunity while in
office did not bar authorities from keeping tabs on the highly visible
politician.

"It's a case of lost national credibility," said Guillermo Velasco,
president of Mexicans United Against Crime, a group funded by business
leaders concerned about runaway drug trafficking and corruption.

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