DRUG ARRESTS FOR SOLDIERS IN MEXICO

MEXICO CITY (AP) - Anti-drug officials have arrested at least six former
soldiers and nine other people accused of protecting one of Mexico's
most-wanted drug suspects.

Anti-drug prosecutor Jose Luis Santiago told a news conference on Friday
night that the raids were just ``the first part of the operation'' to
destroy the smuggling ring allegedly led by Osiel Cardenas Guillen.

He called the ex-soldiers, former members of an elite airborne unit,
``deserters, traitors'' and said they had posed as members of the Mexican
army to help protect Cardenas.

The announcement showed the continuing ability of leading drug rings to
corrupt Mexican officials.

U.S. officials have offered a $2 million reward for Cardenas, who allegedly
is rebuilding the Gulf Cartel once led by Amado Carrillo Fuentes and based
in Matamoros, across the border from Brownsville, Texas.

Carrillo Fuentes died in a Mexico City hospital after plastic surgery to
disguise himself in 1997.

The FBI says that Cardenas, 34, has threatened the lives of U.S. anti-drug
and customs agents.

Santiago said officials raided 21 houses in several Mexican states and
seized property including three light airplanes.

He said officials also suspect an official in the attorney general's office
in the city of Reynosa helped protect the gang.

In recent years, Mexico has turned increasingly to the army to help fight
crime, especially drug smuggling, despite concerns the institution itself
could be corrupted by multimillion-dollar bribes.

In April, the military prosecutor announced the arrest of a brigadier
general, a captain and a lieutenant on charges of having provided
protection for Cardenas' operation.

In August 2000, two senior generals allegedly linked to another border
cartel, the Tijuana-based Arellano Felix gang, were arrested on similar
charges.

The army's biggest drug scandal occurred in 1997 with the arrest of Gen.
Jesus Gutierrez Rebollo, who headed Mexico's anti-drug agency.