DRUG WAR ALLIANCE WITH MEXICO HAS ITS LIMITS

No matter how much new information emerges about drugs and Mexico, one
never should be surprised by ever more startling revelations from south of
the border. That rule of thumb figures to be especially true if an
explosive money laundering investigation now being completed by the Swiss
government proves to be on target.

The wide-ranging Swiss probe into the alleged drug-related activities of
former President Carlos Salinas de Gortari's older brother reportedly has
yielded evidence that Raul Salinas received $500 million or more in bribes
from Mexican and Colombian drug lords.

But even more stunning is the charge that the administration of Carlos
Salinas may have benefited directly from drug corruption. At a time when
the Clinton administration is voicing the mantra of "binational
cooperation" on drugs, such charges must be seriously investigated.

In a particularly searing charge, millions of dollars in drug protection
payoffs are said to have gone directly to Carlos Salinas' 1988 presidential
campaign. Lionized by U.S. politicians in the run-up to the the North
American Free Trade Agreement, he routinely called drug trafficking a
threat to Mexico's national security. But the Swiss report suggests that he
may have been little better than former President Ernesto Samper of
Colombia, whose 1994 presidential campaign was widely believed to have
benefited from drug cartel donations.

>From his Irish exile, Carlos Salinas has gone intercontinentally ballistic
over leaks of the Swiss report published in the New York Time. He has
unleashed categorical denials of charges contained in the Swiss report
while demanding that the government of his successor, Ernesto Zedillo,
discredit the investigation.

In truth, the Swiss case isn't considered airtight by U.S. law enforcement
experts who are familiar with it. They carefully term the case "triable."
The fact that many of the findings are based on interviews with imprisoned
drug traffickers could lead disinterested observers to infer that convicted
drug thugs are to veracity as Monica Lewinsky is to modesty. Still, the
truth of an allegation is to be judged ultimately by the facts, not by who
makes the allegations.

Immediately at stake is the $130 million, found in Raul Salinas' Swiss bank
account. If the Swiss conclude that the money came from criminal drug
activities, the government likely will move to seize it next month. Raul
Salinas insists that the money came from legitimate business enterprises.

As troubling as the investigation is for the Salinas family, the report has
far larger implications for those concerned about the U.S. policy of
cooperation with Mexico on drug issues. Faced with a steep learning curve
on the subject of the Western Hemispheric drug trade, why have the Swiss
been able to track down so many leads on Raul Salinas, even as related
probes by U.S. and Mexican investigators appear to have stalled?

The Mexicans argue that they investigate only one charge at a time and that
Raul Salinas currently is under investigation for his role in a political
murder. Meanwhile, the U.S. Justice Department appears to have made little
progress on an investigation of alleged money laundering by Raul Salinas
involving Citicorp bank offices in Mexico City and New York.

As Mexico's anti-drug efforts continue to sputter, U.S. drug czar Barry
McCaffrey continues to build his Potemkin village of drug enforcement on a
foundation of binational cooperation. His latest brainchild is to create a
Southwestern border czar to oversee law enforcement activities in the
region. Ever the politician, Mr. McCaffrey believes that person should be
popular, speak Spanish and be willing to cooperate with Mexico.

Cooperation should be the preferred option, but it always should be offered
conditionally. In light of the new information, Mr. McCaffrey and his
bosses may wish to reorient themselves. Do they believe the Swiss report?
Or Carlos Salinas' denials and his veiled accusations against the Zedillo
administration? Or the Zedillo administration, which imprisoned Raul
Salinas in 1995 for, among other things, the murder of a senior Mexican
politician and "inexplicable enrichment"?

Finally, Mr. McCaffrey and his bosses also might consider what their own
drug fighters are saying about intelligence sharing with Mexico. "You have
to assume that everything we've been giving them has ended up in the hands
of the traffickers," one U.S. law enforcement official recently told the
New York Times when asked about the failure of various elite Mexican drug
agents to pass a lie detector test. "It's a disaster," he said.

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski