INDICTED FUGITIVE MEXICAN PROSECUTOR INDICTED; TO BE TRIED IN U.S.

HOUSTON (AP) -- A former Mexican deputy attorney general fighting
extradition to his homeland has been arrested on charges he helped launder
about $10 million in suspected drug payoffs in a Texas bank.

In a 25-count indictment unsealed today, 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.

Then, 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.

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

He was taken into custody again Thursday night.

Mexico had been seeking to have Ruiz Massieu returned home to face other
charges stemming from its own narcotics and bribery probe.

Ruiz Massieu is likely to face trial in Houston, officials said.

U.S. courts have been considering a State Department request to have Ruiz
Massieu deported to Mexico along with his request for asylum in the United
States. Ruiz Massieu has ties to the family of former Mexican President
Carlos Salinas de Gotari and has claimed that he would be tortured if he is
returned to Mexico.

Ruiz Massieu served two stints as deputy attorney general during the Salinas
presidency. He also supervised Mexico's anti-drug effort for six months in 1994.

U.S. authorities have testified that Ruiz Massieu profited from the drug
trade while in office and sabotaged international efforts to capture a
former Mexican drug lord.

Ruiz Massieu is scheduled to appear today before a U.S. magistrate in
Newark. One of his attorneys, Cathy Fleming, said he will plead innocent.

"I'm not surprised. We've been hearing rumors about it for years and years
and years," Ms. Fleming said today. "I'm disappointed in the government,
that they continue to hound this man who has prevailed in so many proceedings."

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 officials in Houston said today they are still looking for
Jorge Stergios, the man hired by Ruiz Massieu to ferry the money from Mexico
to Houston.

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

The Mexican government has accused Ruiz Massieu of obstructing the
investigation into the 1994 assassination of his 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 also is believed to have profited from the drug trade. Swiss
banking authorities contend they have identified $115 million in protection
money paid to Raul Salinas.