MEXICAN AGENTS NAB EX-OFFICIAL

Former Governor On Lam For 2 Years

MEXICO CITY -- Mexican agents bundled a former governor in a bulletproof
vest and flew him to a prison Friday as federal prosecutors in New York
unsealed charges accusing him of helping smuggle 200 tons of cocaine into
the United States.

Mario Villanueva, who also faces charges in Mexico, was arrested Thursday
night in Cancun, a beach resort in Quintana Roo state where he had been
governor until March 1999. He went into hiding two weeks before his term ended.

Early Friday, a small army of federal agents flew him to Mexico's
highest-security prison in Almoloya, west of Mexico City. A spokesman for
Mexico's attorney general's office said Villanueva had to be pushed onto
the plane.

In Mexico, Villanueva awaits charges that he used his office to protect
members of the ruthless Juarez drug-smuggling organization during his
1993-99 administration, a tenure that saw the drug trade boom along
Mexico's white-sand Caribbean coast.

Authorities say Villanueva assigned police to protect smugglers of the
Juarez group, one of Mexico's largest and most powerful drug cartels. But
he denied the allegations, saying they were prompted by political rivalries.

The charges mounted on Friday when federal prosecutors in New York unsealed
an indictment accusing Villanueva of helping smuggle 200 tons of cocaine
into the United States, receiving $500,000 for each shipment he helped pass
through his state.

Mary Jo White, the United States Attorney for the southern district of New
York, said Villanueva's arrest sends a powerful message to drug smugglers.

"No longer can they operate with impunity simply because they hold
positions of influence in their home countries, or because they choose to
remain outside of the United States," she said. "No longer can they avoid
justice by going into hiding."

His arrest ends a more than two-year manhunt that proved embarrassing for
Mexico's former government, which opted to break with tradition and go
after one of its own -- only to let him get away.

Villanueva's older brother told Mexico's government news agency Notimex on
Friday that the former governor arrived in Mexico on Thursday, taking a
private jet from Costa Rica, with the intention of negotiating his
surrender with police.

But he said authorities nabbed him before he got the chance. The attorney
general's office refused to comment on the report.

Mexican Attorney General Rafael Macedo attributed Villanueva's capture to
collaboration with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

President Vicente Fox, who unseated Villanueva's Institutional
Revolutionary Party last December, ending its 71-year reign, called the
case an important step toward stamping out impunity.

From the beginning, Villanueva's case -- with an investigation of a
ruling-party governor by ruling-party officials -- raised the eyebrows of
many Mexicans used to the virtual impunity enjoyed by government officials.

After his disappearance, Villanueva sent a statement to a television
network,saying prosecutors had "fabricated evidence, paid for testimony
from some witnesses and pressured others" to build a case against him.

Officials say drug trafficking grew substantially in Quintana Roo during
Villanueva's administration, led by Ramon Alcides Magana, also known as "El
Metro," a former police official who defected to the Juarez drug-smuggling
group.