CARTEL PAID OFF PAN OFFICIAL, WARRANT SAYS

A professional jeweler who later was killed alleged that ex-Chihuahua Gov.
Francisco Barrio Terrazas of the National Action Party received payoffs from
the former leader of the Juarez drug cartel, according to a Mexican arrest
warrant.

Luis Reza, a member of Barrio's staff in Mexico City, said Barrio was
unavailable for comment.

Barrio, who still maintains a house in Juarez, was governor from 1993 to
1998.

Mexican President-elect Vicente Fox is considering him for a possible
Cabinet-level post that will crack down on corruption.

Barrio was the first Panista to be elected Chihuahua governor.

In the arrest warrant, Tomas Colsa McGregor told Mexican attorney general
officials in a sworn statement on March 25, 1997, that "besides being told
by people in the center of drug-trafficking, Amado Carrillo Fuentes, who has
relations with and who is given protection by the governors of Yucatan,
Quintana Roo, Campeche, Sonora and Chihuahua. ...

"Amado told him (Colsa) that this last Panista governor of the last name of
Barrios (sic), had abused by asking Amado Carrillo for large quantities of
money, which had (Carrillo) bothered because (Chihuahua's governor) was
always asking him for money."

In a prepared statement, Fox's press secretary, Martha Sahagun, said, "Mr.
Barrio is a person of untouchable honorability." She said that Barrio's
career path is well known and that he and all of Fox's top advisers were
honorable people. Sahagun did not comment on the specific allegations.

The arrest warrant did not contain further details about the allegations
against Barrio.

The warrant is related to Mexican drug cartels and is known as the maxi
proceso because it is more than 2,000 pages and involves many suspects. It
was sent by the Mexican government to the U.S. district court of El Paso for
an extradition proceeding.

Ricardo Gonzalez Baños, assistant to Jose Larrieta, who's in charge of the
Mexican attorney general's drug investigations, said Larrieta could not
comment on the allegations against Barrio.

Carlos Becerril, spokesman for the Mexican attorney general's office in
Mexico City, said that except for Quintana Roo's ex-governor, none of the
other former governors mentioned in the arrest warrant, including Barrio,
face federal charges.

Mexican authorities said the arrest warrant represents an open
investigation, and that is why the allegations against Barrio remain in the
document.

Barrio is now on a national panel that advises Fox on anti-corruption
policies. Another panel member is Federico Reyes-Heroles, brother of
Mexico's ambassador to the United States, Jesus Reyes-Heroles.

Nongovernmental organizations criticized Barrio's administration, which they
said failed to curb unprecedented violence in Juarez, including hundreds of
"narco executions," more than 200 disappearances and the deaths of nearly
200 women.

Barrio also was elected Juarez mayor in 1983, some believe on the strength
of his reputation for honesty. Before he was elected mayor, he fought
against electoral fraud.

In 1998, he was presented the keys to the city of El Paso and the Paso Del
Norte Award.

Cartel Insiders Slain

Colsa's statement is part of a 2,433-page Mexican indictment dated Feb. 19,
1999, issued by the criminal district judge of the federal district in
Mexico City. It cites as its basis a preliminary investigation by the
federal attorney general (PGR/UEDO No. 157/98), which includes Colsa's
statement.

Authorities said Colsa, a fine-jewelry expert with a Ph.D., was kidnapped,
tortured and killed July 5, 1997, in Mexico City. His death came the day
after Amado Carrillo died following plastic surgery, also in Mexico City.

Irma Lizzette Ibarra, a former Miss Jalisco and the cartel's "public
relations" manager, is also mentioned in the arrest warrant as a suspected
cartel member. She was murdered in 1997.

Jose A. Andrade Bojorges, Amado Carrillo's lawyer, included an excerpt of
the arrest warrant with the allegations about Barrio and others in his 1999
book, "The Secret History of Drug Trafficking."

Andrade was reported missing in May 1999, said Socorro Martinez, a
spokeswoman for publisher Oceano. She said Andrade's family feared he was
kidnapped and killed.

Corruption Allegations

The arrest warrant links Mexican Gen. Jesus Gutierrez Rebollo to Carrillo.
Gutierrez, Mexico's ex-drug czar, was convicted in 1997 of helping the
Juarez drug cartel.

The arrest warrant alleges that Carrillo provided Gutierrez money, vehicles,
a cell phone, and an apartment for the general's alleged mistress.

Other witnesses besides Colsa told authorities that the cartel gave money
and other goods to Mexican federal police, Mexican federal highway police
and other Mexican army soldiers to protect drug shipments.

The arrest warrant alleged that Carrillo's people gave officials with the
federal attorney generals' office throughout Mexico up to $50,000 each as
protection money. Payoffs to certain people were $500,000 or more.

According to the arrest warrant, the cartel arranged to have sympathetic
police commanders appointed in key cities like Juarez. The Juarez commander
Carrillo had in mind was not identified in the document.

Becerril said that Attorney General Jorge Madrazo is aware of corruption
allegations against Mexican federal security forces and that his staff has
worked hard to address the problem.

Vicente Carrillo Fuentes, Amado's brother and alleged new leader of the
Juarez drug cartel, and Eduardo Gonzalez Quirarte, Amado's alleged
right-hand man, are mentioned in the arrest warrant.

Two years ago, U.S. federal officials seized Gonzalez's house and truck
center in East El Paso and houses belonging to him in Clint and San
Elizario. Gonzalez is wanted by U.S. and Mexican authorities on charges of
drug smuggling.

Last month, U.S. officials indicted Vicente Carrillo on charges that he
allegedly ordered the murders of 10 people in Juarez, including four El
Pasoans.

Voluminous Document

Although many people know of the arrest warrant through news media accounts,
few outside law enforcement and defense lawyers have seen it.

The document was entered into evidence during Lucio Cano's extradition
hearing Sept. 21 in El Paso's federal court.

Mexican authorities accused Cano, a Juarez lawyer who lives in El Paso, of
drug-trafficking and money laundering. He denied the allegations.

Although Cano is mentioned in the arrest warrant, no one accused him of
specific wrongdoing. U.S. District Judge Richard Mesa ruled there was no
proof to substantiate extradition and ordered Cano released.

The Mexican attorney general's office sent the maxi proceso and other
documents to El Paso federal prosecutors first through the U.S. Embassy in
Mexico City and then through the State Department in Washington, D.C.

Cano's Mexican lawyer, Patricio O'Farrill, said "there are several versions
of the maxi proceso."

The 28-pound bundle required special handling. It was strapped together with
a red ribbon that was not to be untied and had an official seal that was not
to be broken.

The El Paso federal courthouse staff was instructed to return it to the
State Department after Cano's release.

Other allegations in the arrest warrant were that Amado Carrillo had a crush
on Mexican pop star Gloria Trevi, a Chihuahua native accused of corrupting
minors. Trevi, who has denied the allegations, is in a Brazilian jail
awaiting extradition to Mexico.

The document also said that Carrillo brought his terminally ill father to El
Paso for treatment, and that his father died in El Paso.

It said that the drug lord had ties to a Juarez hospital, and that he was a
neighbor of other drug kingpins in Juarez, who also died in the power
struggle to control the cartel.

It also said the cartel kept several accounts in El Paso banks.