FORMER MEXICAN OFFICIAL ARRESTED IN NEW JERSEY

A former Mexican deputy attorney general, sought by that country for
obstruction-of-justice charges and the subject of extradition hearings in
the United States, was arrested Thursday in New Jersey and held in federal
custody, his attorney said.

Mario Ruiz Massieu was detained at his home in Newark, N.J., said attorney
Tony Canales in Corpus Christi.

"His wife, Maria, called me and told me he was arrested at home," Canales
said. "It was a surprise, but we suspect it is an indictment out of Houston."

He said Ruiz Massieu has a hearing Friday morning before a federal
magistrate in Newark.

Ruiz Massieu had been under house arrest in New Jersey while he fought
extradition to Mexico. But Canales said that he had successfully fought
multiple extradition hearings.

In Mexico, the federal Attorney General's Office said in a statement that a
U.S. grand jury had indicted Ruiz Massieu on charges of drug trafficking and
money laundering.

Ruiz Massieu would remain in the United States to face trial, it said. In
Mexico, he faces five separate arrest warrants on charges of obstruction of
justice, embezzlement, illegal enrichment, money laundering and crimes
against health for his collaboration in drug trafficking, the statement said.

The office called Thursday's indictment "an important step against impunity."

"The federal Attorney General's Office and the Department of Justice of the
United States will continue collaborating toward the goal of a condemnatory
sentence against Mario Ruiz Massieu," the statement said.

Canales said that the arrest came so suddenly that he would not be able to
represent Ruiz Massieu at his federal hearing.

"We had absolutely no notice. It was news to me," he said.

In 1995, Ruiz Massieu, deputy attorney general of Mexico under President
Carlos Salinas, was arrested by federal authorities as he tried to leave New
Jersey for Spain. Authorities later discovered that he had $9 million
stashed in a Houston bank.

A federal trial in Houston in 1997 resulted in the confiscation of $7.9
million of the money. Federal authorities convinced a jury that the money
had been made through illegal drug transactions, though Massieu was not
charged at the time with any crime in connection with the money.