U.S. TARGETS TOP FOREIGN DRUG TRAFFICKERS' ASSETS

WASHINGTON -- The Clinton administration is trying to put the financial
squeeze on the world's biggest drug kingpins, but there are fears innocent
people and businesses could get caught in the wringer.

The administration is required, under legislation approved last year, to
provide Congress by today with a list of what it considers to be the top
foreign drug traffickers.

Those on the list -- and their foreign business associates -- would see
their U.S. assets frozen in most cases. Americans would be barred from
doing business with them.

"We're hitting these people (traffickers) where it really hurts," said Rep.
Porter J. Goss, R-Fla., chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on
Intelligence.

However, civil libertarians are concerned that assets will be seized before
foreign companies have a chance to defend themselves. Some U.S. and foreign
companies fear that they will be penalized for unwittingly doing business
with traffickers.

And Mexico is wary of the new law, known as the Foreign Drug Kingpin
Designation Act. Though supporting its goals of fighting traffickers,
Mexican leaders worry that the list could become politicized and influenced
by Mexico's critics in Congress, creating a "scandalous political
atmosphere," Juan Rebolledo, Mexico's undersecretary of foreign relations,
said in an interview in Mexico City.

A senior administration official said the first part of the list -- the
names of major drug traffickers -- was being reviewed yesterday by
President Clinton in Lisbon, Portugal, where he was meeting with European
Union leaders. Those names will be released today, and the traffickers'
assets will be frozen immediately, the official said, speaking on condition
of anonymity.

The other part, naming the traffickers' business associates, was being
prepared by the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, but
it was unclear when it would be made public. Other names and businesses
could be added later.