Mexican druglord wins appeal over key U.S. murder

GUADALAJARA, Mexico, April 24 (Reuter) Mexican drug lord Rafael Caro
Quintero has won an initial appeal against his 40year jail sentance for the
1985 murder of U.S. narcotics agent Enrique Camarena, officials said on
Thursday.

A judge accepted his appeal against the sentence, ``which means the case
records will have to be revised,'' a senior official from the Jalisco state
Attorney General's Office told Reuters.

Caro Quintero will stay in jail while prosecutors appeal against the ruling,
he said.

Camarena, an agent for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, was
kidnapped in February 1985 near the U.S. consulate in Guadalajara, 300 miles
(480 km) west of Mexico City. He and his pilot were found dead a month later.

The murder and U.S. suspicions of a coverup in the investigation by Mexican
authorities harmed U.S.Mexican relations.

Caro Quintero, one of Mexico's most powerful drug lords, was captured in
Costa Rica the same year. He was also held for drugrelated crimes committed
in other parts of Mexico.

``There are approximately 10 cases (against Caro Quintero) in different parts
of the republic. This one is just one stripe on the tiger,'' the official
said.

Mexico has been accused in the U.S. Congress this year of being soft in its
war on drugs, a charge the Mexican government forcefully denies.

Mexico's top antidrugs official, Gen. Jesus Gutierrez Rebollo, was arrested
in February on drug corruption charges, causing an uproar on Capitol Hill.

But President Bill Clinton continues to consider the country an
antinarcotics ally. Clinton is scheduled to visit Mexico on May 57.