Pubdate: Sat, 05 May 2001
Source: San Diego Union Tribune (CA)
Copyright: 2001 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://www.uniontrib.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/386
Authors: Sandra Dibble and Marisa Taylor, Staff Writers

MEXICO SHIPS LEADING DRUG SUSPECT TO U.S.

A suspected leading member of the Arellano Felix drug cartel was extradited 
to San Diego from Mexico City yesterday, the first action taken under a 
precedent-setting Mexican Supreme Court decision that cleared the way for 
Mexicans to be sent to the United States to stand trial.

Arturo "Kitty" Paez Martinez, a Tijuana man in his mid-30s, is charged with 
smuggling more than 2,200 pounds of cocaine into the United States for 
Tijuana's Arellano Felix cartel.

The extradition signals an important step toward closer cooperation between 
the United States and Mexico on drug trafficking.

It comes the day after Mexican President Vicente Fox announced, during a 
visit with President Bush in Washington, the arrest of a major drug 
trafficking suspect in Guadalajara.

According to the Mexican Attorney General's Office, Paez was flown out 
under heavy guard from the international airport of Toluca near Mexico 
City. After a stop in El Paso, the plane carrying Paez was expected to 
arrive in San Diego late last night.

The extradition of accused drug smugglers had been a point of contention 
between the U.S. and Mexican governments.

Although an extradition treaty has existed since 1980, it was only under 
the government of former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo that Mexico 
began to extradite its own citizens.

Until the Supreme Court ruling, however, Mexican suspects were able to get 
injunctions against extradition fairly easily.

Gregory Vega, U.S. attorney for San Diego, said, "This extradition is 
unprecedented and marks the beginning of a new era between the United 
States and Mexico." He said the extradition shows that Mexico "is no longer 
and will not be a safe haven for drug traffickers in general and the 
Arellano Felix organization in particular."

Donald Thornhill, spokesman for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in 
San Diego, said, "It sends a clear signal to the Arellano Felix 
(organization) that there's a new president in Mexico and he's serious 
about taking these cartels out."

U.S. authorities said they have been working behind the scenes with Mexican 
authorities on the possibility of an extradition since January's Supreme 
Court ruling.

"This signals a radical change," said Jesus Blancornelas, a Tijuana 
journalist whose bodyguard was shot to death and who nearly lost his own 
life following a November 1997 attack by members of the Arellano Felix 
cartel. "This will strike fear among the Arellano Felix (group) and all 
other drug traffickers."

Drug-trafficking suspects have resisted being sent to the United States for 
trial because they face longer prison terms, and possible life 
imprisonment. At least one alleged Mexican trafficker has fought 
extradition on grounds that life imprisonment is cruel and unusual punishment.

A member of Tijuana's upper crust, Paez was arrested in Tijuana by Mexican 
federal agents on Nov. 12, 1997, while dining at a Japanese restaurant.

Paez faces two indictments in San Diego. In the first, handed down by a 
grand jury in June 1997, Paez is accused of conspiring to distribute more 
than 1,000 kilograms of cocaine between 1990 and 1995.

The second indictment is more sweeping. The 28-page document charges him 
with cocaine smuggling counts and the charge known as the "kingpin" count, 
which can result in a life sentence -- or in rare cases in the death sentence.

According to the indictment, Paez oversaw a cocaine smuggling and 
distribution ring that funneled drug loads into Southern California and 
other parts of the United States.

The indictment says many of the drug deals took place throughout San Diego 
County. In one deal, allegedly arranged by Paez, two accused members of the 
ring picked up a several-hundred-kilogram load of cocaine from someone in a 
parking lot of a Chula Vista shopping center.

In 1992, the organization began using backpackers who smuggled cocaine 
across the border into the United States, where the drugs were loaded into 
the trunks of cars located in junk yards, according to the indictment. The 
cocaine was then moved to a ranch in Riverside, where it was stored until 
being shipped on to other places including New York, Illinois and Los Angeles.

Federal authorities allege that Paez's ring included more than 10 people 
that Paez supervised. One of the men accused in the indictment of helping 
Paez was David Barron Corona.

Barron was killed in 1997 by a ricochet fragment during the attempted 
assassination of Blancornelas, who had made exposing the Arellanos one of 
his newspaper's crusades. Barron had long been described by authorities as 
a notorious Logan Heights gang leader.

U.S. authorities had long speculated that Paez's extradition would also 
open up the possibility that other Mexican nationals accused of U.S. crimes 
would follow.

Vega said, "I believe the extradition gives force and power to President 
Vicente Fox's vow to rid Mexico of drug traffickers."

Fox on Thursday announced the Guadalajara arrest of Adan Amezcua on charges 
related to illegal methamphetamine production. Amezcua's brothers Jose and 
Luis also are jailed and have resisted attempts to extradite them to the 
United States.

"Now that the three Amezcua brothers are in jail, certainly it's another 
great battle against drug trafficking in Mexico," Fox said in a news 
conference after meeting with Bush.
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