MEXICO SEIZES THREE HOTELS FROM DRUG CARTEL

MEXICO CITY, Nov 24 (Reuters) - Mexican authorities have seized about $200
million in assets from drug traffickers, including three luxury hotels, two
of them in the Caribbean resort of Cancun, according to a published report
on Tuesday.

The Reforma newspaper said Mexican police, with the help of U.S. agents,
took cars, the hotels and other property from members of the so-called
Juarez cocaine cartel.

Mexican and U.S. law enforcement officials declined comment.

Two hotels in Cancun, the Costa Real and Laguna Real, were seized as well
as one in nearby Playa del Carmen, the Porto Real, the newspaper said.

Reforma said police had arrested the architect of the hotels and a top
cartel official identified as Gerardo Munoz Hidalgo, believed to be a
contact between the cartel based in the northern border city of Ciudad
Juarez and their Cali, Colombia-based counterparts.

It also said police were looking for Oscar Benjamin Garcia Davila, a former
assistant director of the Quintana Roo state police, and bodyguard and
intelligence chief to state Gov. Mario Villanueva Madrid.

Media reports have recently said that Cancun, a resort visited by hundreds
of thousands of North American and European tourists each year, had taken
on the role played by Miami in the 1980s as a drug-trafficking paradise.