DRUG MONEY LINKED TO KIN OF EX-MEXICAN CHIEF

LAUSANNE, Switzerland - US investigators have traced $132 million in Swiss banks to the brother of a former Mexican president and say at least some of the money came from drug traffickers, say court documents released yesterday.

Switzerland's highest court disclosed details of the largely secret US case against Raul Salinas de Gortari, the brother of former president Carlos Salinas de Gortari. The Federal Tribunal made the disclosure in a decision allowing some bank account documents to be turned over to US authorities, who have accused Salinas, his wife, and others of money laundering, bribery, and cocaine trafficking. The decision omitted names but referred to ''the brother of the previous Mexican president'' and otherwise made clear that it was the latest decision in the Salinas case.

The court disclosed not only that US officials believe Salinas had deposited $132 million in Swiss bank accounts but also that they believe significant drug dealers paid Salinas to ''assure undisturbed passage of the drugs through Mexico to the United States.'' The court also referred to US assertions that the wife of Raul Salinas, Paulina Castanon, admitted that the money came from bribes. Salinas has denied any links to drug traffickers and said the money in the Swiss accounts was an investment fund pooled by several wealthy friends.

Virtually all of the funds have been frozen by Swiss authorities since November 1995. Raul Salinas has been imprisoned in Mexico in the 1994 murder of a political rival. Carlos Salinas, who left Mexico in disgrace in early 1995 soon after his term ended, has spent most of his self-imposed exile in Dublin.