TIJUANA CHIEF, 40 POLICE OFFICERS HELD

Latin America: Army, Federal Force Make the Arrests as Part of the Mexican
Government's Crackdown on Drug- Related Corruption.

MEXICO CITY -- The Tijuana police chief and about 40 other Baja California
state and local police officers were arrested by Mexican army units and
special federal police in a surprise operation at a Tecate police academy
Wednesday as part of the Mexican government's crackdown on drug-related
corruption.

Details of the morning raid remained sketchy, but Baja California Gov.
Eugenio Elorduy Walther confirmed the operation at a news conference. The
governor's office and the Tijuana mayor's office said Tijuana Police Chief
Carlos Otal Namur was among those arrested.

The sweep is part of the intensifying war on narcotics traffickers being
waged by President Vicente Fox's administration. Several top drug
traffickers have been arrested in recent weeks, including Benjamin Arellano
Felix, chief of the so-called Tijuana cartel. His brother Ramon, the
cartel's top enforcer, died in a shootout with police in Mazatlan on Feb. 10.

Police corruption in Mexico is high on the list of obstacles to winning the
drug war, U.S. and Mexican officials say. All levels of Baja's police
forces--federal, state and municipal--are commonly thought of as having
been corrupted by drug cartels as well as by local dope dealers.

Many top-ranking U.S. and Mexican law enforcement officials were attending
an Interpol convention in Mexico City today and were unavailable for
comment. But Elorduy Walther said the police were apparently lured to the
state police academy in Tecate on a ruse of having their firearms checked
and test results delivered.

"We have asked the army and the federal prosecutors that the operation be
carried out with respect for human rights but that whoever has a dirty
record or proves to be a bad element, that justice be carried out swiftly,"
he said in a statement.

The police officers arrested were flown to Mexico City. It was not clear
late Wednesday how many army units and federal officers participated in the
raid.

The bloody history of drug wars in Tijuana during the 1990s includes
shootouts between opposing police squads acting on behalf of rival drug
lords. One shootout occurred in 1994 when federal police officers tried to
arrest Javier Arellano Felix and a top lieutenant and were fired on by a
bodyguard composed of Baja state police.

Mass firings of Mexican police officials have been made in recent years,
but mass arrests such as Wednesday's in Tecate are thought to be unusual.

The administration of President Ernesto Zedillo fired 700 federal police in
one swoop in 1996, including 60 in Baja. In early 1997, all 87 federal
police officers assigned to Baja California were replaced after the slaying
of state prosecutor Hodin Gutierrez Rico in Tijuana. Authorities had
dismissed Gutierrez's police bodyguards a few months before he was slain.

The Tijuana cartel, as well as the so-called Juarez cartel, are known to
use Baja police forces as their private armies, say U.S. officials involved
in the drug war.

Police corruption is not confined to Baja. U.S. officials now believe that
Ramon Arellano Felix was executed by Sinaloa state police acting as proxies
for the drug kingpin Ismael Zambada, Ramon's sworn enemy.

The arrests in Tecate occurred near a 1,200-foot tunnel discovered in
February that was used by the Arellano Felix cartel to transport drugs
illegally across the border to the United States. The tunnel was destroyed
last week.

"We reiterate our commitment that the actions we carry out in the state be
always against corruption and impunity so that Baja California is a safe
and peaceful place. To this we are committed and we have only begun,"
Elorduy Walther said.