SWISS LIST CHARGES IN SALINAS GRAFT CASE

Cartels: Probe Points To Alleged $500 Million In Drug-Ring Payoffs.

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

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

Rafael 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 was present in Switzerland, and, in any event, a
new Mexican investigation of Salinas precluded Swiss criminal action.
Nor did the Swiss authorities target others in his family; his wife
and four others were investigated as part of the inquiry.

Salinas is in prison in Mexico on charges of masterminding the killing
of a top ruling-party official. Tuesday, he and his attorneys denied
that his fortune was illegitimate in any way, saying the money was
given to him by rich Mexicans for an overseas investment fund that he
had been planning to launch.

In a full-page letter published Tuesday in Mexico City newspapers,
penned from a prison cell, 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 Rafael Salinas'
brother, Carlos, of any wrongdoing. 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 Rafael Salinas' attorneys and for the case to work its
way through the Swiss courts.

Checked-by: Patrick Henry