Pubdate:  Mon, 11 Aug 1997

By Fiona Ortiz 

GUATEMALA CITY, Aug 8 (Reuter)  Guatemalan officials said on Friday they
would bring formal charges next week against three Swiss men who are in jail
in Guatemala under suspicion of drug trafficking. 

``A judge will hear statements in the case on Tuesday. I don't know what the
exact charges will be until after the hearing,'' public prosecutor Jose
Alberto Lopez told Reuters. 

Police have arrested Andreas Haenggi, head of a Nestle foodstuffs factory in
Guatemala since 1993, his son, Nicolas, and an Italianborn Swiss citizen,
Silvio Geovanelli. 

Lopez said a first hearing in the case was cancelled on Friday because the
men did not yet have lawyers. 

According to the prosecutor the three men used a phantom company,
Geovanelli's plant and flower export business, to export drugs. He also
confirmed investigators were looking into whether Nestle facilities were used
to support the alleged drug operation. 

In Zurich on Thursday, Nestle said it had no reason to doubt the integrity of
Andreas Haenggi, who had worked for the company for 20 years. 

Investigators are working to establish that the men were part of a ring that
operated for three to five years and exported large quantities of drugs to
Europe. Lopez said he could not say how much cocaine the alleged drug ring
moved over the years. 

Police also arrested a Guatemalan, Antigua police chief Jose Luis
Sebadua. 

Tuesday's hearing will be held in the Caribbean port city of Puerto Barrios
where police investigations began into the case four months ago, Lopez said. 

Prison authorities transferred Andreas and Nicolas Haenggi from a jail in
Guatemala City to the Puerto Barrios jail on Wednesday night. 

In April in Puerto Barrios police seized 30 pounds (13 kg) of cocaine hidden
in an ornamental plant shipment destined for Germany. 

In July, German authorities arrested two Germans, Harmut Zersch and Deiter
Chomsi, who received another shipment of cocaine allegedly sent by the
Guatemalan ring via Spain.  

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