Associated Press

MEXICO CITY, Nov. 1 -- A military court today convicted two generals of aiding drug smugglers, concluding a high-profile case aimed at cracking down on
Mexico's drug trade.

The panel of five generals convicted Gen. Francisco Quiros and Brig. Gen. Mario Arturo Acosta of protecting cocaine and marijuana shipments for accused drug
lord Amado Carrillo Fuentes, who died in 1997 after undergoing plastic surgery.

It sentenced Quiros to 16 years in prison and Acosta to 15 years. They have already served two years. The court cleared the men of a separate charge of criminal
association.

Prosecutors accused the generals of protecting drug smugglers and using military airplanes to transport shipments of cocaine and marijuana.

Quiros was also found guilty of taking bribes from Carrillo Fuentes, who allegedly oversaw a Ciudad Juarez-based drug empire and was Mexico's most-wanted
drug trafficker in the mid-1990s. It ordered two cars and other goods confiscated.

The two were stripped of their ranks and of their military decorations.

The officers also face separate charges in the deaths of 130 leftist activists and revolutionaries in the 1970s. That case would open the first prosecution of soldiers for
crimes committed during Mexico's so-called "dirty war."

Quiros, 68, and Acosta, 60, said during the trial that they were innocent and refused to answer the prosecution's questions, citing their constitutional rights to remain
silent.

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