World Notes FRANCE

Unlike ordinary mail, letters and packages sent between embassies and their home countries travel through inspection-free systems of their own. Last week French authorities learned just how laid-back -- and lucrative -- such deliveries can be. Police investigators charged Patrick Schaller, 29, and Pierre Bessonat, 30, two law-enforcement officers stationed in Mulhouse, a town in northeastern France, with using the diplomatic mailbag for the illegal purchase and importation of arms from Lebanon; both formerly held security posts in France's embassy in Beirut. At least a dozen men had been implicated in the arms-trafficking affair, including embassy chief of security Jean- Claude Labourdette, believed to be the operation's kingpin.

Schaller and Bessonat admitted that they had bought arms on Beirut's hyperactive black market. Once safely shipped to France, the weapons were allegedly resold to local gangsters for many times the purchase price.