U.S. ANTI-DRUG AGENTS HELP MEXICO SEARCH FOR MISSING GOVERNOR

U.S. anti-narcotics agents have joined authorities in Mexico in the
search for a Mexican state governor who disappeared days before he
faced possible arrest for alleged ties to drug traffickers, the Drug
Enforcement Administration said Thursday. But DEA officials denied
they were engaged in any criminal investigation of Quintana Roo state
Gov. Mario Villanueva, noting that he had not been charged with any
crime in the United States.

Villanueva, a member of Mexico's ruling Institutional Revolutionary
Party, is being investigated by Mexican authorities for allegedly
allowing drug cartels to use his state as a transit point for cocaine
flowing to the United States from South America. His six-year term as
Quintana Roo governor ends Monday, along with his criminal immunity.
Mexican authorities said they cannot issue an arrest warrant until
then.