Murdered woman's letter accuses drug trafficker

MEXICO CITY (AP) Irma Ibarra Naveja, a former beauty queen gunned
down July 29, wrote in a letter released posthumously Tuesday that a
reputed drug trafficker linked to Mexico's former drug czar had plotted
her death.

The letter confirms suspicions that drug trafficking played a role at
least one of the recent killings in the western city of Guadalajara, and
further incriminates former antidrug chief Gen. Jesus Gutierrez
Rebollo, arrested in February on bribery and other charges.

``If something happens to me, I want to leave testimony that I accuse
Eduardo Gonzalez Quirarte ... given that I have received constant
threats,'' Ibarra wrote in May 1996, more than a year before her death.

The dead woman, who news reports say functioned as a contact between
police and drug traffickers, also accused another man, Roberto Jimenez,
of responsibility in her death.

Gonzalez Quirarte is thought to have served as the top lieutenant of
late drug lord Amado Carrillo Fuentes, who died in July after undergoing
cosmetic surgery at a Mexico City hospital.

Gutierrez Rebollo has acknowledged he had contacts with Gonzalez
Quirarte in an effort to gather information on the drug trade, but
prosecutors say the former official accepted bribes and a luxury
apartment from Quirarte.

According to a copy of the letter delivered to prosecutors, Ibarra said
she found out about Gonzalez Quirarte's drug trafficking activities and
reported them to Gutierrez Rebollo, then head of the military regional
command in Jalisco state.

``You know what relationship links me to that (Quirarte's) family, but I
thank you for your comments and I'll take them into account,'' she
quoted Gutierrez Rebollo as saying.

Instead of arresting Gonzalez Quirarte, Ibarra wrote, Gutierrez Rebollo
told the reputed drug trafficker what she had said and even embellished
her accusations, driving him into a rage.

``That indicates that his (Gutierrez Rebollo's) relationship with these
criminals was more than close,'' according to the letter.

Since that incident in early 1996, Ibarra wrote that someone had begun
tampering with her car in an apparent attempt to injure her.

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