MEXICAN ARREST SEEN IN NEW LIGHT

U.S. Drug Agency Officials Suspect Collusion Between Military, Traffickers

WASHINGTON -- For a year, the Clinton administration has presented the
arrest of Mexico's drug-enforcement chief as proof of that government's
strong will to fight corruption, but now U.S. analysts have concluded that
the case shows much wider military involvement with drug traffickers than
the Mexican authorities have acknowledged.

According to an extensive classified report by the Drug Enforcement
Administration and other intelligence assessments, the arrest last year of
Gen. Jesús Gutiérrez Rebollo followed secret meetings between Mexican army
officers and the country's biggest drug mafia, officials say.

Exactly what transpired remains unclear. But the officials say there is
growing evidence that military officers discussed a deal to let the drug
gang operate in exchange for huge bribes, and that some such arrangement
may have been in place before the gang's leader, Amado Carrillo Fuentes,
died after extensive plastic surgery last year.

The Gutiérrez Rebollo case initially raised fears that he might have passed
sensitive intelligence to members of Carrillo Fuentes' gang. But U.S.
officials say it now points to the possible collusion of military officials
who are central to U.S. drug-enforcement efforts in Mexico.

``The bottom line is that all this goes a lot deeper than we thought,''
said one senior official who, like others, would discuss the report only on
condition of anonymity.

If the indications of wider military involvement with traffickers are borne
out, another official said, ``it points to much of our work in Mexico being
an exercise in futility.''

Some intelligence officials have questioned aspects of the report,
officials said, describing them as speculative. But drug-enforcement
officials still presented it to Attorney General Janet Reno and other
senior officials Feb. 6, one year to the day after Gutiérrez Rebollo was
arrested on the orders of the Mexican defense minister.

Beyond that, officials say the report has been very closely held, because
of the sensitivity of the intelligence and the volatility of the politics
that surround it.

With strong U.S. support, President Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León brought
the military into law enforcement in 1996 because it was seen as the only
alternative to the country's deeply corrupt police.

A month ago, as part of its annual evaluation of narcotics-control efforts
abroad, the administration assured Congress that Mexico was ``fully
cooperating.'' But a Senate discussion of two resolutions to overturn that
endorsement could begin as early as today.

U.S. officials have been reluctant to confront Mexican leaders with their
new assessment. In part, they say, their unease has to do with
still-significant gaps in the story. But they also fear that such a
challenge could imperil largely secret anti-drug programs with which both
the CIA and the Pentagon have been trying to build closer ties to a
neighboring army that has long been deeply suspicious of the United States.

The director of White House drug policy, retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey, said
in an interview that he would not discuss the intelligence reports other
than to confirm that they had been scrutinized very closely.

``It is my view that the Mexican military's actions, both internally and
publicly, have been to resist attempts to penetrate them, intimidate them
and corrupt them,'' he added.