By Kevin Sullivan
Washington Post Foreign Service

MEXICO CITY, Jan. 29 -- Benny, a 9-year-old with an uncommon talent for playing the harmonica, sneaked into Mexico from Texas with the help of a $4,500
bribe. Sped on his way by a shadowy go-between and corrupt customs agents who made him "invisible," Benny got into his new country, found a job, changed his
name and tried to live a decent life.

Now, nine months later, Benny is busted, under investigation by the feds and the media. Reforma, the Mexico City newspaper that broke his story, called him "the
biggest wetback in the history of the Mexico-U.S. border." And since he weighs three tons and stands 10 feet tall, that has to be true.

Benny, aka Dumbo, is an elephant.

The story of how an endangered Asian elephant was secreted illegally across a busy border crossing to start a career in a Mexican circus is amusing a nation this
week. Reforma has run no fewer than four photos of Benny/Dumbo in the past two days, under tongue-in-cheek headlines such as "Undocumented and Persecuted."

Maybe it is because Mexicans, with their wry sense of humor, like the idea of an American -- even an elephant -- being caught as an illegal alien in Mexico, turning
the tables on the usual story. Or maybe it was the absurdity of the idea that somebody could sneak across one of the world's busiest border crossings carrying an
animal the size of a beach house.

Whatever the reason, Benny is big.

"What's going on down there?" said Tom Bauer, spokesman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Texas, who told a reporter he had been fielding calls all day. "I
can confirm that we believe an Indian elephant was illegally smuggled from Texas into Mexico and we are cooperating with Mexican officials."

Benny's story began at the end of 1999, when Mexican circus owner Guillermo Vazquez went to Texas looking for an elephant to star in his show. Vazquez, in an
interview today, said he found Benny performing at a circus in Houston and bought him for $40,000. Vazquez said he applied for a permit to take an endangered
species out of the United States, but that when it had not arrived in two months, he became desperate because he had nowhere to house Benny. So he decided to do
things another way.

"I've been in the circus for 30 years, and this is the first time I've done anything wrong," Vazquez said. "You must understand why. I had no place to keep an elephant
over there, and $40,000 is a lot of money here in Mexico."

So Benny came across the border into Matamoros, Mexico, in a wooden box on a flatbed truck. Vazquez said Mexican customs agents, with his $4,500 bribe in
their pockets, didn't see a thing. "You know how those people are," Vazquez said.

It was also unclear how a truck carrying an elephant -- or anything that weighs three tons, for that matter -- was able to exit the United States without attracting
official scrutiny. Benny's trip violated laws in the United States and Mexico, which are signatories to an international treaty that controls cross-border shipments of
any endangered species, including Asian elephants, known to scientists as Elephas maximus.

As the investigation progresses, Benny is still giving his daily performance in a northern suburb of Mexico City. Each evening, he takes the stage with a mask over his
eyes and his toenails painted white, dancing, playing the harmonica and nodding his head up and down when asked if he likes children.

"He's a very nice elephant," Vazquez said. "I know I made a mistake. But I did it because people want to see elephants in their circus. You know what I mean."

Researcher Gabriela Martinez contributed to this report.

                                                   © 2001