MEXICAN POLITICIANS CRITICIZE US UNDERCOVER DRUG OPERATION

They say the money laundering sting violated their nation's sovereignty and
U.S.-Mexico agreements.

Mexico City- Mexico accused the United States on Thursday of using
undercover agents on its territory during a highly touted operation against
drug-money laundering, possibly in violation of Mexican law.

Mexico's Foreign Relations Secretariat said it had filed a formal protest
over the actions of U.S. agents in "Operation Casablanca."

The secretariat also indicated Washington had not properly informed the
government about the three-year undertaking until a number of Mexican
citizens had been lured to the United States and arrested.

The announcement was a dramatic reversal from the government's earlier
acceptance of the operation, which U.S. Justice Dept. officials called the
biggest money-laundering case ever.

U.S. officials said they did not tell Mexico about the massive sting
because it might have endangered its undercover agents.

In a statement to reporters, Attorney General Jorge Madrazo Cuellar said
U.S. officials initially gave Mexico the false impression the U.S. agents
had not carried out probes inside Mexico.

President Ernesto Zedillo ordered his diplomats to deliver the protest
after he determined that the conducting of a hidden operation on Mexican
soil violated the terms of several agreements between the two countries as
well as the spirit of the close bilateral relationship, officials said.

U.S. officials said they did not inform their Mexican counterparts about
the operation, which involved more than 200 undercover agents, until less
than two hours before they announced its results.

Mexican justice officials also believe that these undercover agents and
confidential informants who worked in Mexico broke several Mexican laws,
Madrazo said. Justice officials here are analyzing court documents with an
eye to preparing legal action against people involved in the operation,
Madrazo said.

He also said Mexican authorities had arrested four of the 26 Mexican
bankers cited in the U.S. indictments announced Monday. The four, he said,
admitted their participation in operations "related to money laundering"
and offered to cooperate with Mexican prosecutors.

As part of money-laundering probes, Madrazo said, Mexico has seized 129
bank accounts of 85 people, with a value of about $1.6 million.

All together, about 150 people were indicted under Operation Casablanca.

Mexican prosecutors endorsed the three-year operation as soon as it was
announced Monday, and they vowed to cooperate with the U.S. investigation.

But the Permanent Commission, which represents Mexico's congress when it is
not in session, voted unanimously Wednesday to demand an investigation into
Casablanca and criticized possible "intervention" by U.S. agents.

"It is true that all Mexicans are against drug trafficking," said Sen.
Eduardo Andrade of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party. "But we
are also against foreign intervention and attempts to destabilize Mexican
institutions."

Andrade said U.S. agents apparently lured Mexican bankers into criminal
acts. "They did not succumb to the corrupting power of drug traffic. They
succumbed to the corrupting power of the government of the United States."

Mexico's largest opposition party, National Action, published newspaper ads
calling the operation "a sneak attack" and "a criminal operation" that
violated agreements to exchange information on drug-fighting operations.

Checked-by: jwjohnson@netmagic.net (Joel W. Johnson)