U.S. DEA HELPS MEXICO HUNT FOR MISSING GOVERNOR

WASHINGTON, April 1 (Reuters) - U.S. anti-narcotics agents have joined
Mexican authorities 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 on 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.

"The governor is being sought by Mexican authorities and he is not under
indictment in the United States," a DEA spokesman said.

"We are working jointly with the Mexican government and our Mexican police
counterparts to assist them in locating the governor," the spokesman added.

The governor, a member of Mexico's ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party
(PRI), 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 on Monday, along with his
criminal immunity. Mexican authorities said they cannot issue an arrest
warrant until then.

U.S. officials have said his state in the Yucatan Peninsula, known for the
Caribbean resort Cancun, became a major route for drug trafficking during
Villanueva's term.

Villanueva disappeared on Saturday and failed to show up this week as
scheduled for questioning in Mexico City.

Villanueva's lawyer said his client fears he will be arrested and subjected
to an unfair trial.

"He didn't tell me that he would flee, but yes, there was a well-founded
fear that once he no longer had immunity he would be arrested without any
legal protection," defence lawyer Raul Cardenas was quoted as saying in
Thursday's edition of Reforma newspaper.

"He felt that he could not get a fair trial," the lawyer said.

The Washington Post reported on Thursday that law enforcement officials in
the United States, Mexico and other countries were investigating bank
accounts in the names of Villanueva, family members and friends that
allegedly contain millions of dollars, including a Swiss account with $73
million in his name.

The Post said bank accounts in the United States, Mexico, the Cayman Islands
and the Bahamas also were under scrutiny.

The U.S. Treasury Department said, however, that its financial crimes unit
was not investigating Villanueva. The Justice Department's money laundering
and asset forfeiture section said it "had nothing on him."

{Reuters:Politics-0401.00741} 04/02/99