U.S. ANTI-DRUG CZAR TOURS MEXICO NARCOTICS EFFORTS

MEXICO CITY - U.S. anti-drug czar Barry McCaffrey on Thursday flew to
southern Mexico to tour Mexican operations aimed at halting the flow of
cocaine from Colombia.

The White House's chief of anti-drug policy was due to visit the southern
states of Oaxaca and Chiapas and the southeastern state of Quintana Roo on
the Yucatan peninsula, where Mexican law enforcement and the army are
focusing efforts to stop drugs coming from Colombia.

"This is the central purpose of my trip," McCaffrey told reporters before
leaving Mexico City.

McCaffrey said his aim was to continue developing cooperation between
Mexico and the United States, which share a 2,100-mile border. He estimated
55 percent of the cocaine used in the United States passes through Mexico.

He will fly to a Mexican navy gunboat patrolling the Pacific, inspect
Mexico's new Federal Preventive Police, visit a counter-narcotics
intelligence gathering center and watch specially adapted anti-drug
speedboats in action.

He was also to see one of five $1.5-million X-ray machines used by Mexico
to check for drugs in 18-wheeler trucks. They were developed after the
Start I arms reduction treaty between Washington and Moscow to scan Russian
ICBM missile containers.

The retired U.S. general's visit to Mexico began on Tuesday evening and was
due to conclude on Thursday afternoon.

RESULTS LIKELY IN YEARS

McCaffrey said Mexico's anti-drug efforts in the South -- part of a
nationwide plan called "Operation Sealing Off" and designed to close
Mexico's borders to Colombian cocaine -- would likely show results in one
to five years.

The $520 million operation now involves 20,291 law enforcement and military
personnel and includes helicopter and aircraft patrols, gunboats and
roadblocks.

The Mexican-U.S. partnership in the war on drugs has often been tortuous.
The countries share a long history of acrimony, including a war 150 years
ago that left the United States owning large chunks of Mexico, including
California and Texas.

McCaffrey said bilateral cooperation had come a long way in the past five
years.

The main issues currently between the two countries are a U.S. "Kingpin"
law, under which the White House can identify companies laundering money
for drug cartels and freeze their assets, and extradition of drug suspects.

Mexico is concerned the Kingpin law could be used against Mexican firms
competing with U.S. companies. McCaffrey said it had proved a successful
tool in Colombia and could have a "tremendous deterrent effect," in the
rest of the world too.

On the issue of extradition, McCaffrey said in a briefing for U.S.
reporters on Wednesday night that he feared cartels were influencing court
decisions, such as in the case of Arturo Paez "El Kitty" Martinez.

Mexican judges have twice rejected U.S. requests for the extradition of
Martinez, accused of being in charge of the bloodthirsty Arellano Felix
brothers gang's finances.

"Operation Sealing Off" also focuses on the Sea of Cortez, between the Baja
California peninsula and the coast of Sinaloa and Sonora states and on the
Gulf of Mexico coast.