TWO OF MEXICO'S JUAREZ CARTEL SENTENCED TO 12 YEARS EACH

Two drug traffickers belonging to Mexico's notorious Juarez
cocaine-smuggling cartel were sentenced to 12 years jail each by a federal
judge, the Reforma newspaper reported Saturday in Mexico City.

Reforma said Roberto Leonardo and Carlos Odilon Villanueva, who worked for
the cartel's former leader, the late Amado Carrillo, in 1996 and 1997, had
been found guilty of money laundering and organized crime.

The daily called it "the most significant case in the history of
narcotrafficking" -- being the first case in which the judicial authority
had found in favor of the prosecution.

The two men are the first suspects of some 100 accused of belonging to the
Juarez cartel who have actually been condemned. Another 15 or more suspects
in the case have been absolved, seven of them members of the military.

The case is also significant as being the first to find that money handled
by the suspects had come from narcotics.

The Juarez cartel is considered one of the main drug smuggling organizations
in Latin America, and is believed to be responsible for smuggling about half
the cocaine consumed in the United States.

The death of Carrillo in 1997 set off a violent struggle for the succession
of the cartel.