Source: Reuters
Pubdate: Sat, 27 Dec 1997

MEXICO DETAINS EXPOLICE SUSPECTED OF DRUG TIES

MEXICO CITY (Reuters)  Mexican authorities have captured two former
policemen suspected of ties to the mighty Juarez drug cartel based in
Tijuana, the Attorney General's Office (PGR) said Saturday.

The PGR said in a statement that its agents detained on Tuesday former
state police Alfonso Escobedo Villalvazo, 42, and Francisco Garcia de Leon
Hernandez, 27, on weapons charges.

``They were held for violating federal arms law. There are other checks we
have to make, and in the event we find ties to drug trafficking there will
be other charges,'' said a PGR official in Baja California state, Jose Luis
Chavez Garcia, quoted in Reforma newspaper.

Along with the former policemen, the PGR seized rifles, bullets and a
package of marijuana in various raids in Tijuana, in Baja California state
on the border with the U.S. state California, and the nearby towns of
Ensenada and Mexicali.

The PGR has been conducting raids in the Tijuana area in an effort to
capture the Arellano Felix brothers  Benjamin, Ramon and Francisco Javier
  who head the notorious Juarez cocaine cartel in Tijuana. 

Copyright © 1997 Reuters Limited.