Alleged drug ties of Mexican generals probed

Copyright 1997 Houston Chronicle News Services

MIAMI In an indication that drug corruption within the Mexican
military may go much deeper than previously admitted, a Mexican
newsmagazine reported Sunday that 10 Mexican generals and 22
other military officers are under investigation for alleged ties
to drug traffickers.

The weekly Proceso also reported that Amado Carrillo Fuentes, who
headed the Juarez drug cartel until his recent death, had written
a private letter to President Ernesto Zedillo on Jan. 14,
offering a deal in which he would relinquish 50 percent of his
wealth and keep drugs out of Mexico if the government stopped
pursuing him.

Carrillo Fuentes died July 4 in a Mexico City hospital, in what
officials described as an eighthour cosmetic surgery and
liposuction operation to change his appearance.

If confirmed, the revelations would indicate the possibility of
behindthescenes government negotiations with Carrillo Fuentes.

Such negotiations would also raise new questions about the
circumstances of the Feb. 6 arrest of Gen. Jesus Gutierrez
Rebollo, until then head of Mexico's antinarcotics police, who
has been charged with being on Carrillo Fuentes' payroll.
Gutierrez Rebollo says he was arrested after he began
investigating alleged connections of members of Zedillo's family
to drug traffickers.

In a related development, the principal witness against Gutierrez
Rebollo was ambushed and wounded.

Mexican authorities said Sunday that the witness, Ricardo Cesareo
Vazquez Tafolla, recognized the people who attacked him Friday in
Guadalajara. The witness said that they were members of the
Juarez drug cartel and that they had worked with Gutierrez
Rebollo during the seven years he was in charge of the Fifth
Military Region, with headquarters in Guadalajara.

The attorney general's office Sunday identified Vazquez Tafolla
as a former military officer and a partner or an investor in a
private security company that allegedly provided bodyguard
services to Carillo Fuentes and his principal lieutenants.

One of the men linked to Gutierrez Rebollo and facing similar
charges, Luis Octavio Lopez de Vega, was director of the security
company in which Vazquez Tafolla was involved.

According to the Proceso report Sunday, documents from the
military's secret files show that Gen. Juan Felix Tapia Garcia,
former head of the military zone based in Jalisco state, was
suspected of protecting and receiving presents from reputed drug
lord Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo.

"Nine investigations showed the criminal responsibilities of 10
generals, 15 military chiefs, seven officers and two soldiers,
whose crimes went from very serious ones, such as conspiracy to
minor ones, such as breaking military rules or issuing false
testimony," the magazine said.

Two officers, Col. Pablo Castellanos Garcia and Capt. Miguel
Angel Hernandez Torres, are being tried by a military court on
charges of having copied the classified military documents on the
internal drug investigations from the military's computers, it
said.

On drug lord Carrillo Fuentes, it said he did not offer in his
letter to turn himself in, but to help crack down on independent
cocaine barons, abstain from selling drugs inside Mexico and to
bring more dollars into the country to help revive its economy.

In return, the drug lord allegedly requested to be allowed to
keep half his wealth, immunity for his family and permission to
continue trafficking drugs to the United States and Europe. If
the government rejected his offer, he would submit it "and its
benefits" to another country, his letter reportedly said.