EX-CHIEF IN MEXICO CHARGED WITH DRUG TIES, REPORTS SAY

MEXICO CITY - A former Mexican police chief was arrested yesterday on
charges of being on the payroll of the Arellano Felix drug gang, local
media reported. Adrian Carrera Fuentes, former director of the Federal
Judicial Police, equivalent to the FBI, was detained early in the morning
and arraigned without bail, said national broadcaster Radio Red.

A spokeswoman for the Attorney General's Office said she could not confirm
the reports. Neither could the office of the top prosecutor for the Federal
District. Local reports said Carrera Fuentes had long been suspected of
having links to the Arellano Felix brothers, who allegedly operate out of
Tijuana. The Arellano Felix clan is one of Mexico's most-wanted fugitives
and is also on the FBI's most-wanted list.

Carrera Fuentes would be one of the highest-level drug arrests in Mexico
since its anti-drug chief, General Jesus Gutierrez Rebollo, was held last
year on suspicion of protecting the rival Juarez cartel. Meanwhile, the US
Senate voted 54-45 yesterday against a Republican-led resolution proposed
by four senators that sought to revoke the approval Clinton gave last month
in his annual evaluation of other countries' anti-drug efforts.

Proponents of the resolution complained Mexico had failed to stop drug
cartels smuggling billions of dollars of cocaine, heroin, and other drugs
into the United States.