MEXICO TRUMPETS DRUG-FIGHTING SUCCESS

NARCOTICS: In a wide-ranging report,officials say they seized 6,224 tons in
the past five years, most of it marijuana.

MEXICO CITY - Mexican police and soldiers over the last six years have
destroyed more than 800 square miles of marijuana and poppy crops - an
expanse bigger than Orange County, officials said Wednesday.

In one of their most comprehensive reports on counternarcotics, Mexican
officials said they have seized 6,224 tons of illicit drugs since December
1994, most of it marijuana. They've arrested tens of thousands of suspects.
And they've confiscated scores of homes, automobiles, boats and planes.

Mexican agents' work hasn't been without sacrifice, Mexican Attorney
General Jorge Madrazo said.

In 1999 alone, 25 police officers and soldiers were killed while carrying
out anti-drug operations, he said.

Madrazo, Mexican Defense Secretary Enrique Cervantes, Navy Secretary Jose
Ramon Lorenzo and Interior Secretary Diodoro Carrasco reported their
success over the last six years before a crowd of officials and journalists.

"Never before have we given such a comprehensive picture of our anti-drug
results," an attorney general's official said.

The display came just weeks before President Clinton is to decide whether
to certify Mexico as a faithful U.S. ally in the anti-drug fight.
Decertification, as it is known, can cause a country to lose trade and
other benefits. But Mexico is expected to breeze through the process this
year.

Already, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and White House drug czar
Barry McCaffrey have signaled their support for Mexico.

Mexican officials on Wednesday said nothing about certification and instead
focused on what they described as record-setting drug seizures in 1999.

For instance, from Dec. 1, 1998, to Nov. 30, 1999, Mexican authorities said
they confiscated nearly 29 tons of cocaine, the highest amount since a
record 37.7 tons was seized for the same period in 1996-97.

Marijuana and heroin seizures were also at record levels in 1999, a year
after Mexican authorities began to revamp and reorganize their
counternarcotic strategy.

The effort will continue this year, dealing a blow to "the perverse cycle
of drug trafficking," Carrasco said.

At one point during Wednesday's presentation, two Mexican agents stepped
onto a stage and showed off anti-drug officers' new uniforms. The uniforms
are marked with special coding to prevent traffickers and corrupt police
officials from copying the uniforms and posing as legitimate agents.

Current and former U.S. anti-drug agents said cooperation with Mexican
authorities has improved in recent years. They cautioned, however, that
without an independent, credible investigation of Mexican drug seizures and
crop destruction, it is difficult to judge the overall effort.