FORMER MEXICAN PROSECUTOR INDICTED

HOUSTON - Mexico's former top drug prosecutor, under house
arrest in New Jersey for more than four years, was charged Friday with
laundering $9.9 million in suspected drug payoffs through a Houston
bank.

In a 25-count money laundering and conspiracy indictment unsealed
Friday, Mario Ruiz Massieu was charged with using an unidentified
intermediary to move the cash from Mexico to a Houston bank between
1993 and 1995, after he opened the account himself with a $40,000 deposit.

On 26 other occasions, the intermediary deposited $9.9 million into
the account at a branch of the Chase Bank of Texas, known formerly as
the Texas Commerce Bank, the indictment alleged.

U.S. authorities took Ruiz Massieu into custody Thursday night at his
Palisades Park, N.J., home. He's been under house arrest since 1995,
after authorities nabbed him at Newark International Airport while he
was fleeing to Spain.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Joel Pisano in Newark, N.J., set bond for Ruiz
Massieu at $500,000 and ordered that he be flown to Houston within the
next 10 days. His wife and 10-year-old daughter accompanied him to
court.

``I'm disappointed in the government, that they continue to hound this
man who has prevailed in so many proceedings,'' defense attorney Cathy
Fleming said.

Ms. Fleming said the criminal case is identical to the civil
forfeiture case against Ruiz Massieu that was tried in Houston more
than three years ago.

In that case, a federal jury concluded that more than $9 million
seized in the account had been illegally obtained and therefore
rightfully seized by U.S. authorities.

U.S. Customs Service officials in Houston said Friday they are still
looking for Jorge Stergios Gomez, who authorities believe was
instructed by Ruiz Massieu to ferry the money to Houston.

Ruiz Massieu has successfully defended himself against four U.S.
attempts to extradite him and one attempt to deport him. He has
continued to write books about Mexican political history while under
house arrest in New Jersey, Ms. Fleming said.

The Mexican government has accused Ruiz Massieu of obstructing the
investigation into the 1994 assassination of his own brother, Jose
Francisco Ruiz Massieu, the No. 2 official of the ruling Institutional
Revolutionary Party.

Mexican prosecutors contend Mario Ruiz Massieu was trying to protect
the man convicted of masterminding that murder, Raul Salinas, the
brother of the then-president.

Raul Salinas is currently serving a 25-year homicide sentence at a
medium-security prison west of Mexico City.

The former Mexican president, Carlos Salinas, now lives in
self-imposed exile in Dublin, Ireland.