MEXICO HOLDS U.S. WOMAN FOR HEROIN SMUGGLING

MEXICO CITY, March 2, (Reuters) - Mexican police detained a U.S. woman on
Tuesday for allegedly smuggling 58 pounds (26 kg) of heroin in the biggest
heroin bust of the last five years, federal prosecutors said.

The Attorney General's Office (PGR) said police stopped a car with Texas
license plates, driven by a woman identified as Leticia Covarrubias Ayala,
in the northeastern state of Tamaulipas and found the drugs stashed in
secret compartments.

They also found large amounts of an amphetamine-based cutting agent, usually
mixed with heroin to reduce its purity, the PGR said in a statement.

It added that Ayala, who was accompanied by a one-year-old boy and a
17-year-old girl, had identified herself as a U.S. citizen and that consular
authorities had been informed of her detention.

"For this kind of drug, the seizure was the most important made by the PGR
in the last five years," it said.

In various other drug seizures around the country, police found 1.2 metric
tons of marijuana, the PGR said in a separate statement.

It said the largest haul of marijuana took place in the northwestern state
of Baja California when authorities stopped a truck carrying marble grave
plaques.

In the state of Chihuahua, which borders Texas, police arrested six people,
five of whom were U.S. citizens from El Paso, after finding marijuana hidden
in the gas tank of their car.

Mexican drug interdictions fell in 1998 compared with the previous year.
Nevertheless, President Bill Clinton last week decided to "recertify" Mexico
as an ally in the drugs war. The U.S. Congress must approve the
certification of the United State's southern neighbour.

Decertified countries face U.S. economic sanctions.