By SAM DILLON

          MEXICO CITY -- Mexico's four top security officials jointly announced Thursday what they
          called a new antinarcotics strategy, based largely on the introduction of radar and other
          technology.

          Interior Secretary Francisco Labastida Ochoa, who made the announcement with the Secretaries of
          Defense and Navy and the Attorney General, said Mexico would spend $400 million to $500 million
          over three years to buy new planes, ships, radar and other military and law enforcement equipment.
          He said $160 million for anti-drug equipment was included in this year's budget.

          In addition to the new spending, the strategy involves pledges to coordinate Mexico's law
          enforcement agencies and combat corruption more efficiently. Labastida called it "a total war against
          drug trafficking."

          "This is the most ambitious anti-drug effort that has ever been undertaken by our country," he said.

          The rare joint public appearance by the four officials in an auditorium at the Interior Ministry and
          their somewhat extravagant description of the initiative suggested it might have been timed to
          influence United States officials three weeks before the Clinton Administration must certify whether
          Mexico is a reliable partner in the narcotics war.

          Reporters were not allowed to ask questions after the officials' speeches.

          Marco Provencio, a spokesman for the Treasury Ministry, said last year that Mexico spent about $1
          billion annually for all of its anti-narcotics operations and purchases, about 1.4 percent of its total
          federal budget.

          In that context, the $160 million in new spending for anti-drug equipment appeared to represent a
          significant increase.

          "This is a very big financial commitment," an American official said Thursday.

          Gen. Enrique Cervantes Aguirre, the Defense Minister, said Mexico would acquire a new fleet of
          aircraft equipped with radar and infrared cameras to track suspected drug planes.

          In the past, American radar aircraft been given intermittent permission to track drug planes over
          Mexican territory, and the acquisition of new radar aircraft suggests a desire to operate more
          independently.

          Other projected acquisitions include ships equipped to support dozens of high-speed patrol boats
          for maritime interdiction, amphibious craft to protect coastlines, and new helicopters.

          The most useful new equipment, an American official said, may be trucks equipped with large-scale
          radar for deployment at the border or along strategic highways to conduct electronic searches of
          cargo trailers.

          Mexico's new emphasis on anti-drug technology is likely to arouse a debate here that is already
          under way in the United States. The White House's director of drug policy, Barry R. McCaffrey, has
          endorsed using high-technology equipment. Other law enforcement officials believe that traditional
          techniques like infiltrating informants into drug-smuggling organizations are far more cost-effective.

          The new initiative comes as law enforcement agents here have appeared increasingly overwhelmed
          by the country's powerful traffickers.

          In an incident on Wednesday that underlined the traffickers' growing audacity, men firing AK-47
          rifles ambushed a group of federal agents just outside the Mexico City headquarters of the Federal
          Judicial Police, killing two officers and wounding three civilians. Several American drug agents had
          visited the building hours earlier.

                     Copyright 1999 The New York Times Company