U.S. Report: Mexican Family A Criminal Threat

WASHINGTON - One of Mexico's wealthiest and most politically powerful families is so involved in drug trafficking and money laundering that the father and two sons "pose a significant criminal threat to the United States," according to a recent report by the U.S. government's main drug intelligence task force.

While U.S. law-enforcement officials have spent years investigating the family - Carlos Hank-Gonzalez and his sons Carlos Hank-Rhon and Jorge Hank-Rhon - the assessment by several agencies marks the first time that all three have been linked directly to the operations of major Mexican drug organizations.

The Hank family, often described as Mexico's Rockefellers, is known for its multibillion-dollar transportation, construction and financial empire and its great influence within the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which has ruled Mexico for seven decades.

Hank-Gonzalez, the patriarch, was mayor of Mexico City, held two Cabinet positions in the government of Carlos Salinas de Gortari and used his position as minister of agriculture to mobilize electoral support for Salinas' successor, President Ernesto Zedillo.

He was famous for saying that "a politician who is poor is a poor politician" when asked how he rose from poverty to become a billionaire while never holding a job that paid more than $80,000 a year.

Denials from family

Spokesmen for the Hank family denied the report, and Mexican officials said the allegations were politically motivated and designed to embarrass the Zedillo government.

The report was written by the National Drug Intelligence Center, which coordinates investigations by different agencies. It accuses the family of using its businesses to move cocaine to the United States and launder millions of dollars in drug money. The family enjoys impunity in Mexico because of its high-level political connections, the report indicates.

The report drew on information from the Drug Enforcement Administration, FBI, U.S. Customs Service, CIA, Interpol and others. The report says intelligence agencies had "intercepted conversations of the Hank family coordinating drug shipments" at TMM - a giant Hank-owned shipping company - and personally meeting with drug kingpins.

The Hank family business is known in Mexico as Grupo Hank. "Several years of investigative information strongly support the conclusion that the Hank family has laundered money on a massive scale, assisted drug-trafficking organizations in transporting drug shipments, and engaged in large-scale public corruption," the document says.

Spreading to U.S.?

The report said the Hank family "has begun to extend its interests from Mexico to the United States. The Hank family has purchased or exercises control over several U.S. banks, investment firms, transportation companies and real estate properties. . . . The family and its associates continue to seek favor and respect among policy makers, soliciting support for their plans from often-unsuspecting, influential U.S. business and political figures."

Carlos Arguelles, a spokesman for Hank-Gonzalez, said the accusations were "completely false, and everyone in Mexico knows they are false . . . (Hank-Gonzalez) travels to the United States frequently, and I don't understand what is motivating these charges."

The report says, "An analysis of case information shows that (Carlos) Hank-Rhon continues to launder money and was closely associated with the late (Juarez cocaine cartel leader) Amado Carrillo Fuentes."

The report was hardest on Jorge, the younger son. He lives in Tijuana, owns its largest racetrack and "is reportedly a close associate of leaders of the Tijuana-based Arellano-Felix drug-trafficking organization," the report says.

"Case information indicates that Jorge Hank-Rhon launders money, distributes cocaine and meets with prominent drug traffickers through his businesses," the report said. "Jorge is more openly criminal than either his father or his brother and is regarded as ruthless, dangerous and prone to violence against his enemies."