MEXICAN EX-POLICE CHIEF ADMITS TAKING DRUG MONEY

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - The jailed former chief of Mexico's top police
force admitted taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from drug
traffickers in exchange for protection, according to court documents
published in Mexican newspapers Thursday.

Adrian Carrera Fuentes in the early 1990s ran the Federal Judicial Police,
an investigative unit similar to the FBI in the United States but with
special responsibility to combat the multi-billion dollar illegal drugs
trade between Mexico and the United States.

According to court documents published by Mexican newspapers, Carrera
accepted a series of bribes of up to $300,000 each time or a new Cadillac
from the late Amado Carrillo Fuentes.

Carrera was arrested in March and held without bail, making him the second
high-ranking official in a year who was accused of being on Carrillo
Fuentes' payroll. Carrillo Fuentes died last year following plastic surgery
and liposuction.

In 1997, Mexico's top anti-drugs warrior, Gen. Jesus Gutierrez Rebollo, was
jailed and later convicted for having sold out to Carrillo Fuentes, also
known as ``The Lord of the Skies'' for his ability to ship tons of cocaine
in jumbo jets.

Carrera, the former police chief, appeared in court Wednesday, caged but
wearing civilian clothes. He refused to testify but results of previous
police interrogations were made public at the hearing.

``In October 1993, he (Carrera) had an interview with Amado Carrillo
Fuentes in which he (Carrillo) asked him if he was going to help by
granting protection so that he could continue his drug trafficking
activities, and he (Carrera) answered that he was going to commission
judicial police to escort him, promising not to pursue him and to let him
keep working,'' the court documents said, according to El Universal newspaper.

In another meeting between the police chief and the drug lord, Carrillo
allegedly barked out orders to an assistant that he buy the most luxurious
model of Cadillac available for Carrera.

``Moreover, upon saying goodbye, (an assistant) handed over a suitcase in
the house which he (Carrera) opened up and discovered it contained more
than $300,000,'' the documents said.

Other interrogations of the police chief revealed he allegedly held
meetings with other drug traffickers during which cash payments of $200,000
or $100,000 changed hands. The money was invested in a chain of home
furnishing stores that operated without paying taxes, El Universal said.

Checked-by: Richard Lake