60 MEXICO CITY POLICE SUSPENDED FOR DRUG USE

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -- Sixty officers from Mexico City's police force were
suspended Tuesday after failing a drug test, the latest blow to an already
dismal reputation for Mexico's capital police force.

The suspended officers included delegates to two of the city's biggest
districts and two other high-ranking officials, the city's attorney general
Samuel del Villar told a news conference.

The scandal came days after 15 policemen were arrested in a brutal rape and
kidnap case of three teenage girls.

``They were suspended immediately,'' Del Villar said of the latest
suspensions, adding later to reporters that nearly all the officers had
tested positive for cocaine use.

The news added to intense pressure on city mayor Cuauhtemoc Cardenas, a
leading opposition figure to the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party
(PRI), to clean up the city's notoriously dirty police and stop rampant crime.

Cardenas, of the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), won the
first-ever modern vote for Mexico City mayor last year and is seen as a
likely contender for the key 2000 presidential race.

Earlier this week, city residents reacted with disgust to news that 15 local
policemen were arrested for the kidnapping and gang rape of three teenagers.

The girls, aged 13, 15 and 18, were kidnapped after asking police for
directions and held for more than four days in horse stalls of the mounted
police before managing to escape.

On Tuesday, the policemen's lawyer, Alejandro Guzman, said the three girls
were prostitutes and had seduced the police.

``These are girls who often sold their bodies for a meal,'' Guzman told
reporters.

Checked-by: Melodi Cornett