MONEY-LAUNDER CASE LEADS TO ARGENTINA

MIAMI - The biggest drug-money-laundering case in U.S. history has led
investigators to secretly search for late Mexican drug baron Amado
Carrillo Fuentes' close associates and their hidden fortunes in an
unexpected place: Argentina.

Law-enforcement agents involved in the investigation told The Miami
Herald last month that they had identified $25 million in suspected
drug assets of Carrillo Fuentes' Juarez Cartel. They said much of the
money had been sent to Argentina through U.S. banks since August 1997,
and was used for the purchase of luxury apartments and ranches in
Buenos Aires.

In addition, the wives and children of top Juarez Cartel leaders -
including a daughter of new cartel leader Juan "El Azul" Esparragoza -
have been living in Argentina since the band suffered a major blow
following Carrillo Fuentes' accidental death during cosmetic surgery
in 1997, investigators say.

The discovery is almost sure to draw new attention on Argentina as a
possible refuge for international drug traffickers and their fortunes.
It comes only two weeks after Argentines were shocked to learn that
the widow and a son of Colombia's best-known drug baron, the late
Pablo Escobar, are living in Argentina.

Following leads from Operation Casablanca, the $157 million U.S.
drug-money-laundering investigation unveiled last year, U.S. and
Mexican investigators traced millions of suspected drug cartel
deposits to an account in Citibank New York, held by a firm known as
Mercado Abierto Casa de Cambio S.A. of Argentina.

Mercado Abierto is owned by Aldo Ducler, an economist and former
government official who in recent months has been a close supporter of
Eduardo Duhalde and Palito Ortega, the defeated ruling party
candidates for president and vice president, respectively, in
Argentina's Oct. 24 election. Argentine police seized Mercado Abierto
yesterday, after the daily La Nacion disclosed part of the
investigation in its morning edition.

At least 17 of the suspected drug money transfers to Mercado Abierto
were made "for the benefit of" Nicolas Di Tullio, according to
Operation Casablanca documents made available to The Herald.
Investigators identified Di Tullio as the son of the former head of an
important Argentine real-estate company.

Most of the money originated in California banks, including Bank of
America, and were transferred to the Citibank account in New York,
investigators say. In New York, Citigroup spokeswoman Leah Johnson
said the reports about Citibank's transactions "apparently pertain to
the standard practice of bank-to-bank transfers at the request of
reputable U.S. banks."

The investigation was stepped up after top officials of Mexico's
Interpol bureau visited Argentina and made an official criminal
complaint requesting the seizure of drug-suspected properties and
accounts, as well as the arrest of suspected money launderers.

"It's an investigation which we had started a long time ago, ever
since we first learned about the presence of Carrillo Fuentes in
Argentina in 1997," Mexico's Interpol chief Juan Miguel Ponce said in
a telephone interview yesterday. "We knew that, before his death, he
had set up cells in Chile, Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil."

Carrillo Fuentes, also known as The Lord of the Skies, was also a
frequent traveler to Cuba, and had a common-law wife and a daughter
there, other senior Mexican officials say.

A U.S. Customs delegation is in Argentina this week as part of the
investigation, and is looking into suspected Juarez Cartel ranches in
rural areas of Buenos Aires province, officials said.