U.S. INDICTS FORMER MEXICAN OFFICIAL

NEWARK, N.J. -- Capping years of investigation in a case that has
roiled relations with Mexico, U.S. prosecutors Friday detailed a
25-count narcotics and money-laundering indictment of Mario Ruiz
Massieu, a politically influential former Mexican deputy attorney
general arrested in New Jersey in 1995.

The indictment, unsealed Monday by a Houston grand jury, represents
the first felony charges brought in the United States against Ruiz
Massieu, who had close ties to the family of former President Carlos
Salinas de Gortari. The indictment charges that Ruiz Massieu used his
position as Mexico's top anti-drug official during 1993 and 1994 to
obtain large bribes from drug traffickers. It accuses Ruiz Massieu of
sending a top aide to make 25 trips from Mexico City to Houston,
ferrying a total of $9 million in cash, packed in suitcases, for
deposit in two Texas banks.

While Ruiz Massieu was deputy attorney general, the indictment
charges, he "did receive large sums of United States currency in the
Republic of Mexico from individuals associated with drug traffickers."
The unsealing of the indictment was first reported in Friday's
editions of Mexican newspapers.

Attorney denies charges

On Friday, Ruiz Massieu's lawyer, Cathy Fleming, continued to deny
those charges, saying that her client's family was "a very prominent
and rich family in Mexico" and that the money was family money.

The indictment reflects an abrupt about-face by the Clinton
administration, which for years after Ruiz Massieu's arrest at Newark
Airport on March 23, 1995, had been reluctant to embarrass the Mexican
government by prosecuting such a senior official. Law enforcement
agents, led by the U.S. Customs Service, pressed federal prosecutors
for years to charge Ruiz Massieu with drug crimes.

But senior Clinton administration officials for several years worked
instead to return him to Mexico, at first through extradition and more
recently by seeking to deport him.

Ruiz Massieu was named Mexico's deputy attorney general in early 1994,
largely because of his influential connections. His older brother,
Jose Francisco, was the No. 2 official in the governing Institutional
Revolutionary Party and had been married to President Salinas' sister.

He first fell afoul of authorities in Mexico, not because of his ties
to traffickers, but because of official accusations that he mishandled
the investigation into the September 1994 murder of his brother, Jose
Francisco. President Salinas' brother, Raul, was later convicted by a
Mexican judge of that killing.

The new indictment comes four years after the former Mexican official
fled his country for the United States and was subsequently picked up
for attempting to take about $40,000 out of the United States without
reporting it, in violation of U.S. Customs regulations. He was held
for several months at that time, and then released on bond and placed
under house arrest. Since then, immigration officials have sought to
deport him.

Ruiz Massieu was taken into custody Thursday night by U.S. Customs,
Drug Enforcement Administration and Federal Bureau of Investigation
agents at a home in Palisades Park, N.J., where he has been living
under house arrest. He is also being monitored by the Immigration and
Naturalization Service, pending the outcome of the efforts to deport
him.

Ruiz Massieu, in handcuffs and leg manacles, listened to a court
translator as U.S. Magistrate Joel Pisano ruled that he would be
released on a $500,000 personal recognizance bond. He will continue to
live under house arrest.

Ruiz Massieu still faces arraignment in Houston, where the case is
slated to be tried. Fleming said that her client was not a risk to
flee and "was happy with the protections of the U.S. legal system."
She said that he was innocent of the charges and wanted only an
opportunity in U.S. courts to clear his name.

Fleming had harsh words, however, for U.S. officials, who she said had
descended upon the home that Ruiz Massieu shares with his wife, Maria,
and 10-year-old daughter, Regina, without warning and without giving
her notice of the Houston indictment.

"I'm a little outraged that the government didn't call us," she said
as she stood on the steps of the federal courthouse here after
Friday's appearance by her client.

In seeking to deport Ruiz Massieu rather than to prosecute him, senior
Clinton administration officials argued that his presence in the
United States would damage relations with Mexico.

Asked to explain the change in U.S. position, John Russell, a
spokesman for the U.S. Justice Department said: "His presence is no
longer a problem in foreign policy because we developed a criminal
case against him and backed it up with this indictment. The Mexican
authorities are now helping us in this and are no longer seeking
extradition."

After Ruiz Massieu's brother was killed, President Salinas put Ruiz
Massieu in charge of the initial investigation, but after several
weeks he resigned his post and began to publicly accuse high-ranking
ruling party politicians of blocking his efforts.

Ruiz Massieu's arrest March 3, 1995, at Newark Airport came as he was
fleeing Mexico, days after the arrest and indictment in Mexico of Raul
Salinas, the former president's brother, on charges of murdering Jose
Francisco Ruiz Massieu.

Different charges

At the time, aides to President Ernesto Zedillo told reporters that
they had evidence of Ruiz Massieu's ties to drug traffickers. But he
was never charged with narcotics crimes in Mexico until last July.
Instead, the Mexican government originally charged him with crimes
related to what they called the deliberate mismanagement of the
investigation of his brother's murder.

In January, a Mexican judge convicted Raul Salinas of that killing,
after a trial in which the government argued that Ruiz Massieu, while
directing the initial investigation, had falsified evidence to cover
up Salinas' involvement.

Mexico sought four times to extradite Ruiz Massieu in relation to the
alleged coverup, but several U.S. judges turned down the requests.

In an interview Friday, Eduardo Ibarrola, a deputy Mexican attorney
general, called Ruiz Massieu's indictment in the United States a "victory."

"The good news is that Ruiz Massieu is going to be in jail, either in
Mexico or in the United States," Ibarrola said.