MEXICO INITIATES DRUG PROBE OF RAUL SALINAS

Inquiry: Action follows Swiss move to seize millions in accounts.

Many are skeptical of kingpin allegation.

MEXICO CITY--Mexican authorities said Wednesday that they have
launched an investigation into whether Raul Salinas de Gortari was a
major drug-trafficking figure during his brother's presidency, as
Swiss officials have charged.

The Mexicans announced their probe after Swiss officials moved Tuesday
to seize $114.4 million in European bank accounts, charging that it
had come from drug trafficking.

But even as the new investigation got underway here, many Mexicans
cast doubt on the Swiss allegation that Salinas was a kingpin who
virtually controlled the booming Mexican cocaine business from 1988 to
1994, while his brother Carlos was president.

The Swiss charges, the product of a three-year investigation, appeared
to raise as many questions as they answered. If, in fact, Raul Salinas
played a central role in moving Colombian cocaine to the United
States, how much of the Mexican government had to be involved? And why
did U.S. anti-drug officials miss Salinas' alleged role? "There is
reason to doubt the testimony of all these witnesses who backed up the
accusation" of the Swiss authorities, said Jose Luis Ramos Rivera, who
has led Mexico's prosecution of Raul Salinas, in remarks to reporters.

The witnesses, he added, are "people linked to drug trafficking, or
who are on trial for drug trafficking. Nonetheless, this doubt is not
sufficient. What we must do is verify and corroborate if these
witnesses told the truth or not." Raul Salinas already is being tried
in Mexico on charges of illegal enrichment and for allegedly ordering
the murder of his brother-in-law, politician Francisco Ruiz Massieu.
Jailed near the capital since 1995 but not convicted here of any
charge, Salinas has proclaimed his innocence and called the Swiss
charges "an absurd novel of narco-fiction." Former President Carlos
Salinas de Gortari also maintains his innocence. Although he was not
targeted in the Swiss probe, many wonder how he could have avoided
knowing of his brother's activities. Carlos Salinas lives in
self-imposed exile in Ireland.

The Swiss charges constituted an official endorsement of accusations
involving narcotics that have swirled around Raul Salinas since
authorities in 1995 discovered more than $100 million in his Swiss
bank accounts.

But the Swiss charges go further than previous accusations. They paint
Salinas as a godfather of the Mexican drug trade who ushered tons of
cocaine through this country and across the border even as his brother
was being feted as a close U.S. ally.

That portrait of Raul Salinas was challenged Wednesday by Mexican
columnists, political analysts and officials.

Many noted the Swiss brought civil, not criminal, charges against
Salinas, which would have required a higher standard of evidence.

"I'm sure that if there was solid evidence to prove Salinas'
complicity in drug trafficking, criminal charges would have been
pressed in Mexico, the United States and Switzerland," wrote Sergio
Sarmiento, a columnist for the Mexico City daily Reforma.

He and others noted that the Swiss witnesses included many drug
traffickers imprisoned in the United States who were apparently
seeking reduced sentences or other benefits.

Other observers questioned whether Salinas could have secretly
coordinated all the police, soldiers and government officials needed
to control the movement of drugs through Mexico. Human rights expert
Teresa Jardi, who worked in the attorney general's office in 1993-94,

said the Swiss implied that Salinas had Mexican anti-drug officials
under his thumb. But, she noted, Ramos Rivera, Salinas' lead
prosecutor, was a top government drug investigator in 1993.

Ramos Rivera "would have had to know" if Salinas was a drug lord in
1993, she said. "So he's his accomplice? This is a huge farce." While
casting doubt on some of the Swiss findings, however, officials in the
Mexican attorney general's office announced that they have asked
permission to interrogate the witnesses in U.S. prisons.

Mexican authorities also announced that they will subpoena top
anti-drug officials and attorneys general from the Salinas
administration. And they plan to question Mexican business executives
who, according to Raul Salinas, were the source of the millions of
dollars in the Swiss bank accounts.

Salinas claims the money was for an investment fund he
headed.

The Swiss have not publicly released the 230-page report setting out
their case against Salinas.

However, the law enforcement officials have staunchly defended their
conclusions.

"Most of them do not know one another personally. Nor could they have
known who else would give evidence," said a Swiss statement issued
Tuesday. "Yet the depositions taken from a great number of different
persons with different viewpoints agree with one another and add up to
a homogeneous overall picture." Sixteen witnesss' names were kept
confidential, a fact that was assailed by Mexican critics.

"We are not a Third World country with no rules," retorted Valentin
Roschacher, head of the Swiss police narcotics unit, at a news
conference. "I think we have quite a good system."

Checked-by: Rich O'Grady