MEXICAN PRESIDENT'S BROTHER ALLEGEDLY ACCEPTED BRIBES

GENEVA -- Investigators have obtained evidence that the brother of former
Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari accepted bribes from drug
traffickers, the Swiss anti-narcotics police chief said Thursday.

Valentin Roschacher told The Associated Press the investigation of Raul
Salinas de Gortari is now complete. He declined to elaborate.

``We have a case against Raul Salinas that he got the money from drug
traffickers,'' he said.

Roschacher said the next step is for Swiss Attorney General Carla Del Ponte
to decide whether the evidence collected over 2 1/2 years is sufficient to
prosecute Raul Salinas.

``We established our final report on the police level and sent it to the
attorney general's office, and now it's up to her what she will do,''
Roschacher said.

U.S. officials allege that Raul Salinas deposited $132 million in
drug-trafficking bribes in Swiss banks, according to Swiss court documents.

Roschacher declined to comment on a report in The Miami Herald earlier this
week that witnesses interviewed by Swiss authorities in U.S. jails had
claimed the former Mexican president himself had received drug money.

Roschacher said he had turned in his report to Del Ponte ``some weeks ago''
and that Raul Salinas' defense attorneys have until the end of July to
review the documents.

The Swiss concern has been whether Raul Salinas had helped launder drug
money while his younger brother was president from 1988 to 1994.

If Del Ponte decides to prosecute, the defense attorneys will have the
right to appeal, which would immediately send the case to the highest Swiss
court, the Federal Tribunal.

In April, the tribunal disclosed that U.S. authorities had alleged Raul
Salinas deposited bribes, in part from major drug dealers, to make sure
Mexican authorities allowed cocaine to pass through Mexico into the United
States.

Swiss authorities arrested Raul Salinas' wife, Paulina Castanon, and her
brother, Antonio Castanon, in 1995 after they allegedly tried to withdraw
money from her husband's Geneva account.

The pair were released four weeks later. Swiss authorities said they had
been cooperative and had played only a secondary role in the overall case.

The Swiss initially froze 21 bank accounts in the case, but subsequently
have released about $1 million belonging to Castanon.

Raul Salinas has been imprisoned in Mexico on charges of illegal enrichment
and for the 1994 killing of a political rival.

Carlos Salinas, who left Mexico in early 1995, has spent most of his
self-imposed exile in Ireland.

Checked-by: (Joel W. Johnson)