SWISS CALL SALINAS A DRUG PROFITEER, SEIZE BANK FUNDS

BERN, Switzerland, Oct. 20--Swiss authorities today accused Raul Salinas de
Gortari, brother of the former president of Mexico, of receiving $500
million in payoffs from Colombian and Mexican drug cartels, and
revealed that they had moved the day before to seize $114 million of
that money, stashed in Swiss banks.

The long-awaited revelations of the three-year Swiss investigation
into Salinas's financial dealings outlined a trail of payoffs Salinas
allegedly received from the Medellin and Cali drug cartels in return
for allowing their shipments to transit Mexico safely on their way to
the United States.

He "took control of practically all drug shipments transiting Mexico"
after his brother, Carlos Salinas de Gortari, was elected president in
1988, according to a summary of the investigators' report.

Raul Salinas received payments in the tens of millions from Miguel
Rodriguez Orejuela, head of the Cali cartel, and the late Jose Gonzalo
Rodriguez Gacha of the Medellin cartel, Swiss investigators said. They
said the money was shifted into accounts in Switzerland through a
complex web of transfers involving American and other banks. The rest
of the $500 million remains unaccounted for.

Swiss authorities did not target Salinas criminally, saying they could
not do so unless he were present in Switzerland, and, in any event,
that a new Mexican investigation of Salinas precluded any such action.
Nor did they target others in his family; his wife and four others
were investigated as part of the inquiry.

Salinas is currently in prison in Mexico on charges of masterminding
the killing of a top ruling-party official. In Mexico today, he and
his attorneys denied that his fortune was illegitimate in any way,
saying that the money was given to him by rich Mexicans for an
overseas investment fund that he had been planning to launch. His
attorneys said they will appeal to Switzerland's Supreme Court for
return of the funds. In a full-page letter published today in Mexico
City newspapers, penned from a prison cell outside the capital,
Salinas blasted news leaks about the investigation and "false
declarations and accusations by third parties with the only aim to
create an adverse climate to lynch me."

He said the Swiss had fabricated an "absurd novel of narco-fiction"
based on the testimony of convicted criminals seeking shorter prison
sentences, "with the sole intention of discrediting Mexican people and
institutions."

Swiss law-enforcement authorities did not accuse Raul Salinas's
brother, former president Carlos Salinas, of any wrongdoing, saying he
was not a target of their investigation. Despite numerous questions
from reporters, they refused to say anything about whether Carlos
Salinas could or should have known of his brother's alleged
corruption. They did not rule out the possibility that his name
appears in the formal report. Carlos Salinas, who now lives in
Ireland, has denied any wrongdoing and has said he knows of no
wrongdoing by anyone in his family. He was not interviewed by Swiss
investigators, they said.

Swiss Attorney General Carla Del Ponte said she expected the seizure
of the money -- the largest federal seizure in Swiss history -- to be
challenged by Raul Salinas's lawyers and for the case to work its way
through the Swiss courts.

Some $23 million of the total currently is banked in London, at a
branch of a Swiss institution, and efforts to seize and recover it are
underway. If the Swiss courts support prosecutors' charges that the
money stemmed from illegal activities, Switzerland gets to keep it,
although some may be shared with Mexico, Del Ponte said.

In pursuing their case against Salinas, prosecutors examined 34,000
documents and received testimony from 78 witnesses, whose names were
not revealed. Their 230-plus-page report was not made public and,
according to Swiss officials, will not be.

Authorities said Salinas, who allegedly operated under six false
identities and two false passports, received payments from drug
dealers between 1988 and his arrest in 1995. These payments were
laundered through a complex network of bank and credit-card accounts
in Mexico, Switzerland, the United States and seven other countries,
authorities said.

Some of the money that found its way to Switzerland passed through the
New York office of Citibank, officials said. Citibank has acknowledged
handling some of Salinas's money but has denied any wrongdoing. A
grand jury in New York is currently investigating whether the bank or
any of its employees cooperated in drug-money laundering. Mexican,
Swiss and other banks also were involved in moving Salinas's money,
officials said.

Salinas was able to enforce his promises of safe transit for the drug
shipments, an estimated 10 to 30 loads per month of 700 kilograms
each, by payoffs to "corrupt bureaucrats," officials said, adding that
Mexican police and army forces even guarded the shipments at times.
Salinas at first received $300,000 for each shipment; later his
payments were prorated according to the shipment's value, varying
between 30 percent and 40 percent, according to Swiss
authorities.

Raul Salinas "was a very important and powerful man. He knows many
powerful people," said Valentin Roschacher, head of the narcotics unit
of the Swiss federal police. "He had all the contacts and power he
needed to guarantee protection of those loads. . . . He was very well
paid."

Salinas's lawyers and others have raised questions about the
credibility of some of those who told their stories to Swiss
investigators. Sixteen of the witnesses were granted anonymity -- that
is, their names are not in the final report -- for fear of reprisals,
Roschacher said. Some are now dead, including some who died violently.

Supporting documents released by the Swiss defended the witnesses and
informers, saying that many who did not know each other told similar
stories. Their versions "add up to a homogenous picture," according to
one of the documents. A summary of the investigation disagreed with
Raul Salinas's contention that his activities involved legitimate
business transactions, saying his explanations were "threadbare and
rather implausible."

Correspondent John Ward Anderson in Mexico City contributed to this
report.

Checked-by: Patrick Henry