PAPER RELEASES INFO FROM DEA REPORT

NEW YORK (AP) -- U.S. intelligence officials have found growing evidence
that the Mexican military is more heavily involved with drug traffickers
than the Mexican government has acknowledged, The New York Times reported
today.

The paper said a classified report by the Drug Enforcement Administration,
as well as other intelligence information, has determined that the arrest
last year of Mexico's drug enforcement chief, Gen. Jesus Gutierrez Rebollo,
followed secret meetings between Mexican army officers and the country's
biggest drug mafia.

U.S. officials that the paper did not identify said that they believe the
military officers discussed allowing the drug gang to operate in exchange
for bribes. An agreement might have been reached before the gang's leader,
Amado Carrillo Fuentes, died last year after plastic surgery.

``The bottom line is that all this goes a lot deeper than we thought,'' a
U.S. official said.

Another U.S. official said that if the link between the drug gang and the
military are extensive ``it points to much of our work in Mexico being an
exercise in futility.''

The report was given to Attorney General Janet Reno on Feb. 6, a year after
Gutierrez Rebollo was arrested.

In 1996, Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo began using elements of the
military as a law enforcement agency because the nation's police were
deemed to be so corrupt.

Mexican Defense Ministry officials have denied the details about the
reports that have surfaced so far.

``Lies, slander and infamy,'' said Gen. Tomas Angeles Dauahare, a top aide
to the Mexican Defense Minister.

Last year, military officials acknowledged that several generals met
unwittingly with a top lieutenant of Carrillo Fuentes. They said the
trafficker used an alias and the military officials did not know he was a
member of the drug gang.