U.S. INDICTS THREE IN DRUG PROBE

Two of Mexico's most powerful reputed drug bosses and a former Lehman
Brothers account executive were indicted yesterday in a massive
drug-smuggling and money-laundering scheme involving the importation of
hundreds of tons of cocaine into the United States.

Jose Albino Quintero Meraz, 42, and Jorge Manuel Torres Teyer, 40, were
named in an indictment handed up in U.S. District Court in New York as
leaders of Mexico's "Southeast Cartel," a major drug-smuggling ring
operating out of the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, which borders Belize
and Guatemala on the Yucatan Peninsula.

Also indicted was Consuelo Marquez, 39, a former Lehman Brothers account
representative in New York, accused of participating in the laundering of
millions of dollars of illicit drug profits for the cartel.

The indictments came as the result of an undercover investigation by the
U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, along with the Mexican Attorney
General's Office and the U.S. Attorney's Office in New York.

"If you cut off their flow of money, you cut off the traffickers'
lifeline," said DEA chief Asa Hutchinson. "The DEA will continue to attack
drug cartels where it hurts them the most -- in their bank accounts."

The indictments are part of a continuing DEA investigation that already has
resulted in conspiracy charges filed against two other cartel suspects,
Alcides Ramon Magana and Gilberto Salinas Doria, and against Mario Ernesto
Villanueva Madrid, the former governor of Quintana Roo.

DEA spokesman Thomas E. Hinojosa said the Southeast Cartel, considered one
of Mexico's most violent drug gangs, conspired to import hundreds of tons
of cocaine into the United States and distribute it in metropolitan areas
nationwide.

He said the cocaine was shipped by speedboat from Colombia to various
locations in Belize and Quintana Roo, where it then was transported by
truck to the United States.

Mr. Villanueva Madrid, the former governor of Quintana Roo, is accused of
having received payments for each shipment, approximately $30 million, in
exchange for his protection to store and transport the cartel's cocaine
shipments.

Mr. Hinojosa said the drug smugglers used state facilities owned by the
Office of the Governor.

Mr. Quintero Meraz has been in the custody of Mexican authorities on
separate drug charges since May 26. Mr. Torres Teyer was arrested in Belize
last year after authorities there found him in possession of 1.5 tons of
cocaine bound for the United States.

Formal extradition requests for the two men, along with Mr. Villanueva
Madrid, Mr. Ramon Magana and Mr. Salinas Doria, who also are in custody in
Mexico, are expected later this month.

Since 1995, Mr. Hinojosa said, Mr. Villanueva Madrid and his son, Luis
Ernesto Villanueva Tenorio, who also has been charged, deposited large
amounts of drug proceeds into foreign and U.S. bank and brokerage accounts.

He said they then enlisted the assistance of Miss Marquez, the Lehman
Brothers executive, to conceal their ownership and avoid the detection of
the funds by law enforcement. Miss Marquez used her positions at Serfin
Securities, a Mexican investment firm with offices in New York, and later
with Lehman Brothers to establish offshore corporations structured to
conceal the drug profits and their ownership, he said.

Authorities are seeking seizure and forfeiture of the accounts, estimated
to contain $45 million.

"The success of this investigation exhibits the DEA's commitment to the
pursuit of facilitators who aid and conspire in an attempt to launder
narcotic-trafficking proceeds utilizing U.S. financial institutions," said
Felix Jimenez, who heads the DEA's New York field division.