Pubdate: Sun, 24 Aug 1997 Source: Sunday Times Contact: Mexican drug barons sign up renegades from Green Berets by Christopher Goodwin Los Angeles MEXICO'S ruthless cocaine barons are hiring former members of the American special forces to help them spirit their cargo undetected across the border, according to a senior former drug enforcement official. Silvestre Reyes, a Texas congressman, said former members of the American Green Berets and other elite units had been recruited by drug lords south of the border to help them avoid capture. His claim, in an interview with a local newspaper, has provoked uproar. The American government has denied the claim. But few people know more than Reyes about the war against drugs being fought on the Mexican border. For years he was the top border patrol agent in El Paso, Texas, the main point of entry for cocaine shipments from Mexico. His success in that post carried him into Congress, where he now serves on the House national security committee. "When I was the chief [in El Paso], we had a number of instances where we had intelligence and where we had actual verification that these types of individuals were in the employ of some of the drug cartels, especially in south Texas," said Reyes, who represents El Paso as a Democrat. "With the large sums of money that drug cartels have, they are more and more able to enlist the services of what we have traditionally considered soldiers of fortune." The wellpaid mercenaries, who allegedly include former members of the Green Berets, have done immeasurable damage to the war on drugs, said Reyes. He alleges former American military personnel have helped jam electronic sensors that the American government operates along the border; they have trained drug lords and their henchmen in the use of firearms and explosives and shown them how to use nightvision goggles. They have even taught them how to break secret, coded police and army communications. Former Israeli army soldiers are also believed to be working for the drug barons. His claims are certain to fuel despair in America over the growing power of Mexican drug barons, who in recent years have supplanted the Colombian cartels they once served. Mexican smugglers now control 75% of the cocaine that enters America; and although their ability to buy off Mexican officials has been welldocumented, this is the first time anyone has suggested that the corrupting influence of the Mexican drug lords may have spread over the border. Reyes is demanding action. "It undermines the national security of this country if we have that kind of information and we don't follow through and investigate it," he said. Reyes's accusations are just the latest embarrassment in the American government's battle to halt the creeping influence of the Mexican drug cartels. The government had been buoyed by the capture, extradition, trail and conviction last year of Juan Garcia Abrego, former head of the Gulf cartel of northeastern Mexico. It also welcomed the demise of Amado Carrillo Fuentes, a drug lord who died while undergoing plastic surgery. But there is bad news on the way. A trial in Mexico threatens to reveal the full extent of America's inability to stop the flow of drugs. General Jesus Gutierrez Rebello (pictured), once Mexico's top drug enforcement official, is accused of being on the payroll of Carillo Fuentes, known as the Lord of the Skies for his ability to move huge quantities of cocaine by air. Gutierrez was arrested after it was discovered that he lived in a flatowned by Carillo Fuentes. Gutierrez, who claims he is being targeted by the government to protect other corrupt officials, is threatening to name members of Mexico's political, military and business elite who are in the pockets of the drug lords. Thomas Constantine, head of the American Drug Enforcement Agency, has no illusions about the extent of the wreckage done to years of close cooperation between the American and Mexican governments by Gutierrez: "My sense is that Gutierrez knew everything that was going on, and he used everything he knew." Copyright 1997 The Times Newspapers Limited