NEWSPAPER: FORMULA ONE MOTOR RACING LINKED TO COCAINE SMUGGLING

LONDON (AP) - Customs officials are looking into allegations of a link
between Formula One motor racing and cocaine smuggling amid accusations that
Grand Prix cars may have been used to conceal drugs as they are transported
around the world, the Sunday Times reported.

Quoting mostly unidentified police detectives and customs sources, the
newspaper said customs officers were tipped off by an informant from the
motor racing world 18 months ago and recently began monitoring the movement
of Formula One personnel and equipment through the British port of Dover.

The report came on the day of the British Grand Prix at Silverstone.

Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone declined to comment, the newspaper said,
but an unidentified aid of Ecclestone was quoted as saying: "He did not have
any knowledge or evidence that individuals within F1 were doing anything of
the sort. If he had information or evidence he would have taken it to the
police."

The newspaper reported that an earlier investigation by Scotland Yard into
whether racing cars and their containers were being used as a cover for
cocaine smuggling between South America and Europe was inconclusive.

Duncan MacLaughlin, a former drugs squad detective in charge of the
investigation, was quoted in the paper as saying the informers in the motor
racing world had alleged that Formula One was being used as a front for
cocaine trafficking.

The newspaper said the investigation, which ended in 1997, was looking into
allegations that drugs were being stashed in car parts and equipment and
loaded into containers before being transported from South America to Europe.

The report said MacLaughlin said Ecclestone telephoned him in November 1997
to offer full cooperation.

Detectives had planned to ask former Formula One champion Nigel Mansell to
help in a sting operation, the newspaper said. Mansell declined to comment
to a reporter, the paper added.

The Sunday Times said a Formula One insider, who was not identified, said he
had been interviewed by police investigating the claims. The paper also
quoted another unidentified man as saying he believed he was the target of a
police sting operation.