MEXICAN OFFICIAL TAKEN INTO CUSTODY

MEXICO CITY - Federal agents escorted a former governor suspected of
protecting drug smugglers to a maximum security prison near Mexico
City on Friday, even as a federal indictment against him was unsealed
in New York.

The U.S. indictment against Mario Villanueva charged that drug dealers
from 1994 through December 1996 arranged to pay Villanueva - then
governor of the state of Quintana Roo - about $500,000 for each
shipment of cocaine through his state.

Wearing a bulletproof vest and surrounded by federal agents,
Villanueva was flown to the capital after he was arrested Thursday in
the Caribbean resort of Cancun while traveling in a car. He had been
on the run for two years.

Villanueva did not resist arrest, said Mexico's attorney general,
Rafael Macedo. But the former governor was hesitant to get on the
plane to Mexico City, and federal agents had to push him, Macedo's
office said.

Police also detained two others in the car with Villanueva during his
arrest, a former state judicial police officer and an official from
Mexico's former ruling party.

Villanueva's normally short, black hair had grown long and he sported
a beard dotted with gray. He was arrested with a laptop computer,
several computer discs and $15,940 in cash.

President Vicente Fox said Friday his government would not allow any
crimes to go unpunished. Macedo credited Villanueva's arrest to the
work of his office since his appointment by Fox six months ago and to
collaboration with U.S. authorities.

"This has been the result of intense work and swapping information
with different international agencies, especially, in this case, the
DEA," Macedo said, referring to the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration.

Villanueva, who faces drug smuggling and organized crime charges, is
the highest-ranking Mexican official ever to face a drug investigation
while in office. Mexican authorities accuse him of helping drug
smugglers during his 1993-99 administration, during which the drug
trade boomed.

The main accusation is that Villanueva used police to help protect
drug smugglers belonging to a group known as the Juarez organization.
Villanueva has denied the allegations, saying they were motivated by
political rivalries.