2 MEXICAN GENERALS CONVICTED

Officers Protected Major Drug Cartel

MEXICO CITY - In a high-profile case, two Mexican generals were convicted
Friday of protecting the drug-trafficking operation of the late Amado
Carrillo Fuentes, the ``Lord of the Skies.''

Arturo Acosta and Francisco Quiros Hermosillo were sentenced to 15 years and
16 years, respectively.

The military court found that they received cars, money and jewelry from
Carrillo Fuentes, who ran the Juarez cartel. Carrillo Fuentes died in a
Mexico City hospital in the fall of 1997 after a botched attempt to alter
his appearance through plastic surgery.

The verdict, which is expected to be appealed to the Mexican Supreme Court,
came after eight hours of deliberation and capped a two-year trial against
the generals, who will each be given credit for two years of time served.

The generals will also be tried on separate murder charges -- filed in
September -- in connection with the bloody anti-insurgency campaigns of the
early 1970s.

Like those ``dirty war'' charges, the drug-corruption charges against the
generals relied on testimony from secret witnesses. In the waning days of
the trial, defense attorneys slammed the Mexican government's use of
protected witnesses who also face drug-corruption charges. Dismissing as
insufficient the government's evidence against them, the generals asked the
court why no other drug suspect captured in Mexico in recent years has come
forward to link them to the Juarez cartel.

``I am not a ruffian. I am a general,'' Quiros Hermosillo told the court
this week.

Friday's verdict from a war council of four ranking Mexican officers came
after a military-court proceeding unusual for its openness. Mexican military
justice is normally meted out in secret sessions, but this trial featured
testimony replayed on television news broadcasts.

The Juarez cartel was once Mexico's most virulent drug organization. Its
leader, Carrillo Fuentes, was infamous for having amassed a billionaire's
fortune by moving huge shipments of Colombian cocaine and heroin across
Mexico in everything from cars to customized jet airliners -- hence his
nickname.