Pubdate: Mon, 07 Feb 2005
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2005 The New York Times Company
Contact:  http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author: James C. McKenley Jr
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/Mexico

MEXICO SAYS DRUG CARTEL HAD SPY IN PRESIDENT'S OFFICE

MEXICO CITY - A major drug cartel had a spy inside the office
of President Vicente Fox who fed one of its traffickers precise
information about the president's movements for more than three years,
prosecutors here say.

The attorney general, Rafael Macedo de la Concha, would not say which
cartel was believed to be buying information from the insider, one of
the president's aides, but federal agents investigating the leaks
raided several houses on Saturday. Reforma, one of Mexico's most
respected daily newspapers, reported that the houses belonged to
Hector Beltran Leyva, a top lieutenant of Joaquin Guzman, the most
ruthless and wanted trafficker in Mexico.

The aide, Nahum Acosta Lugo, was arrested in secret on Thursday after
federal investigators looking into drug trafficking discovered
evidence that he had been giving information about the president's
private schedule to a particular drug trafficker. Mr. Acosta has been
held since then at an undisclosed location in Mexico City while agents
interrogate him. In court papers filed Saturday, he denied any wrongdoing.

Mr. Acosta, 42, is a political operative from a border town in Sonora,
a major corridor for drug traffickers. Though his only professional
experience had been as a grade-school teacher, he was hired in 2001 to
be one of the advance men for trips by the president in what appeared
at the time to be a run-of-the-mill patronage appointment.

Mr. Macedo de la Concha, the attorney general, said the actions of
which Mr. Acosta was accused "could have put in risk the physical
well-being of the president," though he hastened to add that
investigators so far had not discovered evidence of an assassination
plot.

"There are no facts or elements that would at this time make us
worried that the security of the president of the republic is in
risk," he said.

Still, security around President Fox was extremely tight on Sunday as
he attended Mass at a church near his ranch in Guanajuato State. More
than double the usual number of bodyguards kept reporters and local
residents at bay, in a break with past practice, Radio Formato 21, a
network of news stations, reported.

Investigators say Mr. Guzman, known as El Chapo or Shorty, is largely
responsible for an underworld war between cartels that has claimed
dozens of lives in recent months. Mr. Guzman, who bribed his way out
of a high-security prison in 2001, has tried to move into territory
controlled by imprisoned gangsters like Osiel Cardenas, the head of
the Gulf Cartel, and Benjamin Arellano, the boss of the Tijuana
Cartel. One result has been bloodshed.

The discovery that drug dealers had bribed someone inside Los Pinos,
as the Mexican presidential mansion is called, added to the sense of
crisis that has gripped the government in recent months, as a tide of
drug-related assassinations has swept the nation.

In the past three weeks, Mr. Fox has been forced to send troops and
federal agents into the three major high-security prisons to search
for weapons and re-establish order, after wealthy drug dealers had
bribed wardens and guards to let them continue to run their networks
from jail.

A spokesman for the president, Carlos Garza, said Mr. Acosta was privy
to details about the president's trips and sometimes traveled with
him, though he was usually sent ahead to check sites and handle
logistics. Mr. Garza maintained that Mr. Acosta was not always
informed of the precise route of the president's motorcade, nor of all
the security measures that would be taken.

Mr. Fox, who is scheduled to go to Spain for a state visit on Monday,
has said nothing about the arrest. Mr. Garza said the president still
had confidence in the other officials in his office who organize his
public events and trips. The president canceled a trip to Ciudad
Juarez and Tijuana that was to take place last week, but Mr. Garza
said the decision had nothing to do with Mr. Acosta's arrest.

Mr. Acosta got his start in politics in his hometown, Agua Prieta,
where he ran unsuccessfully for mayor in 2000. He also developed close
relationships with several politicians in the National Action Party
who helped Mr. Fox win election that year. He himself had switched to
Mr. Fox's party in 1999.

When Mr. Fox took office, he appointed several of his party members
from Sonora to important positions: Alfonso Durazo became his personal
secretary and Manuel Espino his trip coordinator. Both later left the
government.

Mr. Garza said it was Mr. Espino who brought in Mr. Acosta as his top
aide, and Mr. Acosta remained in the position after Mr. Espino left
the government to seek the chairmanship of the national party.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake