Drug Lord May Surrender -- Fugitive Setting Conditions, Official Says

MEXICO CITY - One of Mexico's most powerful cocaine traffickers is willing to surrender, but only if his wife and numerous girlfriends are allowed to inherit his multimillion-dollar fortune, a U.S. official said.

Juan Garcia Abrego, one of the FBI's 10 most-wanted fugitives, also demands that he not be extradited to the United States to face trafficking charges.

Mexican law-enforcement officials yesterday denied they have been negotiating with Garcia Abrego or his representatives.

But the U.S. official said Garcia Abrego's lawyers asked that their client be allowed to visit Colombia before his surrender; that he turn himself in to the police commander of his choice; and that authorities give medical treatment to his brother, Humberto Garcia Abrego, now in jail on money-laundering charges and reportedly suffering the lingering effects of a gunshot wound.

Juan Garcia Abrego, 51, heads the Gulf Cartel, one of the largest of Mexico's 19 major trafficking organizations. U.S. law-enforcement officials allege that the cartel smuggles hundreds of tons of cocaine into the United States every year.

In September 1993, Garcia Abrego was indicted in Houston on money-laundering and cocaine-distribution charges. He is wanted on multiple charges of murder in Mexico.

Mexico City's La Jornada newspaper, citing a Mexican government report, said in March that the Gulf Cartel was a $15 billion enterprise with the ability to buy off and corrupt hundreds of police and government officials.

The idea that the cartel may have had friends in high places emerged in stunning detail last year when Eduardo Valle, the attorney general's official in charge of investigating the cartel, resigned. He blamed corrupt officials for protecting the traffickers and offered boxes of documents to back up his charges.

In December, Mexican Attorney General Antonio Lozano took office, vowing to step up the government's pursuit of Garcia Abrego and his top lieutenants.

His efforts began to pay off in May when agents captured Garcia Abrego's right-hand man, Jose Luis Sosa Mayorga.