Pubdate: Sun, 15 Oct 2000 Source: El Paso Times (TX) Copyright: 2000 El Paso Times Contact: P.O. Box 20, El Paso, Texas 79999 Fax: (915) 546-6415 Website: http://www.borderlandnews.com/ Author: Diana Washington Valdez, CARTEL PAID OFF PAN OFFICIAL, WARRANT SAYS A professional jeweler who later was killed alleged that ex-Chihuahua Gov. Francisco Barrio Terrazas of the National Action Party received payoffs from the former leader of the Juarez drug cartel, according to a Mexican arrest warrant. Luis Reza, a member of Barrio's staff in Mexico City, said Barrio was unavailable for comment. Barrio, who still maintains a house in Juarez, was governor from 1993 to 1998. Mexican President-elect Vicente Fox is considering him for a possible Cabinet-level post that will crack down on corruption. Barrio was the first Panista to be elected Chihuahua governor. In the arrest warrant, Tomas Colsa McGregor told Mexican attorney general officials in a sworn statement on March 25, 1997, that "besides being told by people in the center of drug-trafficking, Amado Carrillo Fuentes, who has relations with and who is given protection by the governors of Yucatan, Quintana Roo, Campeche, Sonora and Chihuahua. ... "Amado told him (Colsa) that this last Panista governor of the last name of Barrios (sic), had abused by asking Amado Carrillo for large quantities of money, which had (Carrillo) bothered because (Chihuahua's governor) was always asking him for money." In a prepared statement, Fox's press secretary, Martha Sahagun, said, "Mr. Barrio is a person of untouchable honorability." She said that Barrio's career path is well known and that he and all of Fox's top advisers were honorable people. Sahagun did not comment on the specific allegations. The arrest warrant did not contain further details about the allegations against Barrio. The warrant is related to Mexican drug cartels and is known as the maxi proceso because it is more than 2,000 pages and involves many suspects. It was sent by the Mexican government to the U.S. district court of El Paso for an extradition proceeding. Ricardo Gonzalez Baņos, assistant to Jose Larrieta, who's in charge of the Mexican attorney general's drug investigations, said Larrieta could not comment on the allegations against Barrio. Carlos Becerril, spokesman for the Mexican attorney general's office in Mexico City, said that except for Quintana Roo's ex-governor, none of the other former governors mentioned in the arrest warrant, including Barrio, face federal charges. Mexican authorities said the arrest warrant represents an open investigation, and that is why the allegations against Barrio remain in the document. Barrio is now on a national panel that advises Fox on anti-corruption policies. Another panel member is Federico Reyes-Heroles, brother of Mexico's ambassador to the United States, Jesus Reyes-Heroles. Nongovernmental organizations criticized Barrio's administration, which they said failed to curb unprecedented violence in Juarez, including hundreds of "narco executions," more than 200 disappearances and the deaths of nearly 200 women. Barrio also was elected Juarez mayor in 1983, some believe on the strength of his reputation for honesty. Before he was elected mayor, he fought against electoral fraud. In 1998, he was presented the keys to the city of El Paso and the Paso Del Norte Award. Cartel Insiders Slain Colsa's statement is part of a 2,433-page Mexican indictment dated Feb. 19, 1999, issued by the criminal district judge of the federal district in Mexico City. It cites as its basis a preliminary investigation by the federal attorney general (PGR/UEDO No. 157/98), which includes Colsa's statement. Authorities said Colsa, a fine-jewelry expert with a Ph.D., was kidnapped, tortured and killed July 5, 1997, in Mexico City. His death came the day after Amado Carrillo died following plastic surgery, also in Mexico City. Irma Lizzette Ibarra, a former Miss Jalisco and the cartel's "public relations" manager, is also mentioned in the arrest warrant as a suspected cartel member. She was murdered in 1997. Jose A. Andrade Bojorges, Amado Carrillo's lawyer, included an excerpt of the arrest warrant with the allegations about Barrio and others in his 1999 book, "The Secret History of Drug Trafficking." Andrade was reported missing in May 1999, said Socorro Martinez, a spokeswoman for publisher Oceano. She said Andrade's family feared he was kidnapped and killed. Corruption Allegations The arrest warrant links Mexican Gen. Jesus Gutierrez Rebollo to Carrillo. Gutierrez, Mexico's ex-drug czar, was convicted in 1997 of helping the Juarez drug cartel. The arrest warrant alleges that Carrillo provided Gutierrez money, vehicles, a cell phone, and an apartment for the general's alleged mistress. Other witnesses besides Colsa told authorities that the cartel gave money and other goods to Mexican federal police, Mexican federal highway police and other Mexican army soldiers to protect drug shipments. The arrest warrant alleged that Carrillo's people gave officials with the federal attorney generals' office throughout Mexico up to $50,000 each as protection money. Payoffs to certain people were $500,000 or more. According to the arrest warrant, the cartel arranged to have sympathetic police commanders appointed in key cities like Juarez. The Juarez commander Carrillo had in mind was not identified in the document. Becerril said that Attorney General Jorge Madrazo is aware of corruption allegations against Mexican federal security forces and that his staff has worked hard to address the problem. Vicente Carrillo Fuentes, Amado's brother and alleged new leader of the Juarez drug cartel, and Eduardo Gonzalez Quirarte, Amado's alleged right-hand man, are mentioned in the arrest warrant. Two years ago, U.S. federal officials seized Gonzalez's house and truck center in East El Paso and houses belonging to him in Clint and San Elizario. Gonzalez is wanted by U.S. and Mexican authorities on charges of drug smuggling. Last month, U.S. officials indicted Vicente Carrillo on charges that he allegedly ordered the murders of 10 people in Juarez, including four El Pasoans. Voluminous Document Although many people know of the arrest warrant through news media accounts, few outside law enforcement and defense lawyers have seen it. The document was entered into evidence during Lucio Cano's extradition hearing Sept. 21 in El Paso's federal court. Mexican authorities accused Cano, a Juarez lawyer who lives in El Paso, of drug-trafficking and money laundering. He denied the allegations. Although Cano is mentioned in the arrest warrant, no one accused him of specific wrongdoing. U.S. District Judge Richard Mesa ruled there was no proof to substantiate extradition and ordered Cano released. The Mexican attorney general's office sent the maxi proceso and other documents to El Paso federal prosecutors first through the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City and then through the State Department in Washington, D.C. Cano's Mexican lawyer, Patricio O'Farrill, said "there are several versions of the maxi proceso." The 28-pound bundle required special handling. It was strapped together with a red ribbon that was not to be untied and had an official seal that was not to be broken. The El Paso federal courthouse staff was instructed to return it to the State Department after Cano's release. Other allegations in the arrest warrant were that Amado Carrillo had a crush on Mexican pop star Gloria Trevi, a Chihuahua native accused of corrupting minors. Trevi, who has denied the allegations, is in a Brazilian jail awaiting extradition to Mexico. The document also said that Carrillo brought his terminally ill father to El Paso for treatment, and that his father died in El Paso. It said that the drug lord had ties to a Juarez hospital, and that he was a neighbor of other drug kingpins in Juarez, who also died in the power struggle to control the cartel. It also said the cartel kept several accounts in El Paso banks. - --- MAP posted-by: Doc-Hawk