DRUG PROBE AIMED AT MEXICAN OFFICIAL

Investigation Of Governor Seen As Attempt To Improve Chances Of U.S.
Certification

MEXICO CITY--Mexican authorities are trying to decide how to charge a
powerful ruling party state governor with drug money laundering, even
though he has immunity and cannot be arrested, according to Mexican
and U.S. officials.

The dispute pits Mexico's federal law enforcement agency, which is
eager to prove it has the legal capacity and political will to reel in
a high-ranking member of the ruling party on drug-related charges,
against Mario Villanueva, the governor of the southern state of
Quintana Roo, who has adamantly maintained his innocence with a put up
or shut up defiance.

Never before has the country's top law enforcement agency attempted so
publicly to prosecute a sitting ruling party governor in a nation
where governors run their states like independent fiefdoms and
officials of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party are
considered untouchable until they leave office. The high-stakes duel
has escalated in recent weeks because of Mexico's attempts to provide
tangible evidence of its willingness to combat drug trafficking just
as the United States is debating the annual certification of Mexico as
a reliable partner in the war on drugs.

But the standoff between government investigators and the governor has
stymied the probe, with the government's lawyers expressing concern
about the quality of the attorney general's case and the legal
obstacles to pursuing criminal charges against Villanueva, according
to U.S. and Mexican officials.

Mexican and U.S. law enforcement agencies are jointly investigating
allegations that Villanueva received millions of dollars in payoffs
from one of Mexico's most powerful drug cartels in return for
permitting passage of cocaine from South America through Quintana Roo
en route to the United States, according to officials from both nations.

Law enforcement sources in both countries say Mexican Attorney General
Jorge Madrazo Cuellar would like to charge Villanueva with
drug-related crimes to prove that no one here is above the law. But
Villanueva has immunity as a sitting governor and cannot be arrested
or charged with a crime unless he first is impeached by the lower
house of the federal Congress under a law designed to protect
high-level elected officials from politically motivated
prosecution.

Since the governor's six-year term ends April 5, some legal analysts
argue that the government should simply wait six weeks to arrest
Villanueva when he leaves office and loses his immunity, rather than
initiate a lengthy and politically charged impeachment process. But
law enforcement sources in both countries said they are worried that
if federal agents don't act quickly, Villanueva could flee the
country. Elections to replace Villanueva, who by law cannot run for a
second term, will be held on Sunday.

Furthermore, according to Mexican and U.S. law enforcement officials
who spoke on condition that they not be identified, there is deepening
concern that the case against Villanueva is weak and might be thrown
out by a judge. Sources said that investigators have been unable to
definitively link overseas bank accounts that they believe are
controlled by Villanueva to drug money. According to one official
familiar with the investigation, that includes a Swiss bank account in
Villanueva's name containing $73 million.

The case has evolved into an extraordinarily public wrangle, with
daily news leaks about supposed evidence investigators have amassed
against the governor and Villanueva's defiant catch-me-if-you-can replies.

This week, Villanueva filed papers asking a judge to order the
attorney general to turn over details of its investigation to him.
Late last year he made a show of voluntarily submitting to
interrogation by Mexican law enforcement officials and took out
newspaper advertisements attacking the allegations against him. "The
governor . . . is very calm and confident" that he will be cleared of
the charges, said Roberto Andrade Uscanga, Villanueva's spokesman. As
to reports of law enforcement officials' concern that the governor
might attempt to flee Mexico when he leaves office, the spokesman said
he "has no reason to leave the country since there are no concrete
accusations" against him.

"Villanueva is absolutely convinced that Mexico thinks the way to get
certification is by cutting his head off," said Raymundo Riva Palacio,
a leading news columnist who has followed the case.

But George W. Grayson, a Mexico scholar at Virginia's College of
William & Mary, said the legal pursuit of Villanueva "is an indication
the government is increasingly embarrassed by these characters who are
so abjectly corrupt and are so blatant about it."

Officials of the federal attorney general's office have declined to
comment on the record about their investigation of Villaneuva.

"At this moment I cannot be precise about the status of the
investigation," Mariano Herran Salvatti, chief of the anti-drug agency
of the federal attorney general's office, said at a news conference
Thursday. "What I can tell you is that we are doing an investigation
in general in the Yucatan peninsula about the operations of the Juarez
cartel and the people who may be involved in such operations."

But officials in both countries familiar with the investigation said
that while Mexican agents have been scrambling to assemble evidence
against the governor, the case is riddled with legal problems.

Although Mexican authorities have tapped the governor's telephone
lines, put Villaneuva and members of his staff under surveillance and
examined bank accounts of the governor, his family, friends and
associates, law enforcement officials are having difficulty tying
Villanueva's reported millions of dollars to drug trafficking,
according to U.S. and Mexican sources.

Officials familiar with the case noted that the governor has made
substantial sums of money in real estate deals in booming Cancun,
Mexico's most opulent beach resort, making it difficult to build a
case that his vast wealth was obtained through illegal drug payoffs.

According to one Mexican official, witnesses bolstering the
government's case allegedly were tortured by army interrogators, and
some witnesses subsequently have retracted or changed their statements
accusing Villanueva of being involved in drug trafficking. The source
also said it appears that at least part of the government's case
against Villanueva is based on illegal wiretaps.

A spokesman for the attorney general's office denied any use of
torture or illegal wiretaps, adding, "The whole investigation is
[being conducted] under the rule of law. . . . We don't use torture
because it's against the law."