CIVIL SERVANTS ACCUSED OF HELPING DRUG LORDS

Mexican officials said Monday they had arrested 25 people who infiltrated
the army, the federal police and the attorney general's office on behalf of
some of the nation's most powerful drug kingpins.

The arrests were the first such case under President Vicente Fox. They
suggest that despite the recent jailing of leading figures from every one
of the nation's major drug gangs, the cartels retain the money and the
power to corrupt Mexico's government.

The attorney general, Rafael Macedo de la Concha, said "corrupt public
servants" were at the heart of a network that had been stealing secrets
from the government and selling them to the drug cartels since 1996.