Pubdate: Sat, 11 September 1999 Source: San Diego Union Tribune (CA) Copyright: 1999 Union-Tribune Publishing Co. Contact: http://www.uniontrib.com/ Forum: http://www.uniontrib.com/cgi-bin/WebX Author: Associated Press MEXICO ARREST EIGHT POLICEMEN ON DRUG, KIDNAPPING CHARGES MEXICO CITY -- Federal prosecutors arrested a total of eight policemen, one former prosecutor and three men who posed as police on a variety of drug and kidnapping charges, the Attorney General's Office reported Friday. The former prosecutor, who is charged with stealing 26.4 pounds (12 kilograms) of cocaine from a police evidence locker in 1996, was arrested Thursday in the southern state of Chiapas, near where the theft allegedly occurred. In a separate action, eight special anti-drug agents were charged Friday with kidnapping, abuse of authority and organized criminal activity. The eight, agents of Mexico's premier anti-drug agency, were arrested Tuesday. The agents, and the three men who posed as officers, used their badges to kidnap three people in Mexico City -- two of them drug suspects -- and demand ransom for their release. Mexico City police caught some of the federal agents when they picked up the ransom. The alleged kindapper-cops began a fist fight with the local police, and one ran back to his agency's headquarters to take refuge while others escaped, gathered up the hostages and quickly filed drug charges against them. Finally, the Attorney General's Office reported that two former state police agents in the southern state of Morelos were convicted of kidnapping and sentenced to 24 years in prison. - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D