AGENTS SUSPECT SONORA GOVERNOR : EVIDENCE INDICATES MEXICAN OFFICIAL TIED TO DRUG TRAFFICKER, U.S. SAYS.

Byline: The New York Times

The governor of the Mexican state that borders Arizona is collaborating with one of the world's most powerful drug traffickers, creating a haven for smugglers who transport vast quantities of narcotics into the United States, according to U.S. officials and intelligence.

Officials said this conclusion was based on a wealth of evidence, including ``highly reliable'' informers' reports that the governor, Manlio Fabio Beltrones Rivera, took part in meetings in which leading Mexican drug traffickers paid high-level politicians who were protecting their operations.

According to the accounts, Raul Salinas de Gortari, the brother of a former Mexican president, received suitcases full of cash and was responsible for distributing the money to those attending.

Present and former officials said the evidence of Beltrones' role was so detailed and compelling that the United States had included his name on a confidential document provided to the transition team of President Ernesto Zedillo listing more than a dozen officials suspected of corruption. Another Mexican governor, Jorge Carrillo Olea, was included on the U.S. blacklist because of reported entanglements with major drug dealers.

While Zedillo did not name either man to a post in Mexico's federal government, both continue to wield considerable power in their states and nationally through their prominence in Mexico's governing party. Both seem to enjoy a tacit immunity from concerted criminal investigation in Mexico and the United States.

Beltrones, in an interview, denied any links to drug traffickers and disputed U.S. law-enforcement officials' assertions that Amado Carrillo Fuentes, one of Mexico's most wanted drug kingpins, was operating with impunity in his state, Sonora. In addition, Carrillo Olea, who presides over Morelos, the state just south of Mexico City, disputed charges that he had cooperated with traffickers.

U.S. intelligence officials assert that Mexican traffickers take in as much as $10 billion annually, then spend as much as 60 percent of that money on bribes for officials at all levels. Officials say much of the derogatory information about Beltrones and Carrillo Olea, a former director of Mexico's anti-narcotics program, has been gathered through intelligence reports from informers, ranging from inside accounts to raw gossip. Their volume, specificity and persistence over time have persuaded many U.S. officials that the allegations against the governors are well founded.

But officials said such material was of little use to prosecutors, who build their cases around witnesses willing to testify in U.S. courts.