THREE MEXICAN ARMY OFFICERS ARRESTED IN ORGANIZED CRIME INVESTIGATION

LAREDO, Texas (AP) ­ Authorities in Mexico have arrested three high ranking
Mexican Army officers on charges they collaborated with the Gulf Cartel
organized crime ring, which has been implicated in large drug shipments
across the border.

Brig. Gen. Ricardo Martinez Perea, Capt. Pedro Maya Diaz and Lt. Javier
Antonio Quevedo Guerrero are suspects in an investigation which centered on
protecting a criminal enterprise, according to Mexico's secretary of defense.

The military's attorney general, Brig. Gen. Jaime Antonio Lopez Portillo,
ordered the arrests of Martinez Perea, commander of the 21st Motorized
Cavalry Regiment, and the other two officers on Thursday evening in Nuevo
Laredo, Mexico.

Quevedo Guerrero was also charged with illegally taking firearms from a
military installation.

Martinez Perea, Maya Diaz and Quevedo Guerrero were held today at Mexico
City in accordance with military laws.

Before the arrests, numerous army vehicles and Suburbans from the federal
attorney's general office drove through Nuevo Laredo in a lengthy column,
according to the Laredo Morning Times' editions today.

The three officers were accused of protecting Gulf Cartel members after a
joint investigation between the federal attorney general's office and the
secretary of defense.

The Gulf Cartel dominates a large area of northeastern Mexico, where
hundreds of tons of marijuana and cocaine pass through on its way to the
United States, said Lopez Portillo, who identified Osiel Cardenas Guillen
as the group's alleged leader.

Gulf Cartel kingpin Juan Garcia Abrego has been a key witness in a Houston
drug trafficking trial.

Mexican Army officials in recent months have issued press releases
revealing that soldiers have confiscated a considerable amount of drugs,
but have not made any arrests. Martinez Perea, in those releases, has said
suspects had fled, leaving the narcotics behind.

Thursday's arrests across the border from Laredo, Texas coincided with
apprehensions of 19 suspects in Camargo, Tamaulipas, across from Rio Grande
City.