Pubdate: Mon, 25 Jan 2016
Source: Press Democrat, The (Santa Rosa, CA)
Copyright: 2016 The Press Democrat
Contact:  http://www.pressdemocrat.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/348
Note: This editorial is from the Los Angeles Times

DON'T BLOW 'EL CHAPO' CASE WITH POLITICS

A massive drug empire spanning North and South America that delivered 
untold tons of heroin and cocaine from Colombia to the U.S. over two 
decades via sophisticated cross-border tunnels, private 747s and 
submarines. Intimidation, bribery and murder in two countries. And, 
finally, the recapture of the world's most infamous drug lord, in 
part due to a visit by a pair of celebrities - and a big order of 
tacos delivered to his hide-out.

With allegations like these, what federal prosecutor in the U.S. 
wouldn't want to be the first to try Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman when 
Mexican authorities extradite him to this country? The seven 
jurisdictions that have filed indictments against him and other 
alleged leaders and associates of the Sinaloa cartel had begun 
competing to get the first shot at him even before Guzman's second 
prison break in July.

U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch, who will ultimately decide, will 
be feeling political pressure from U.S. attorney offices in Chicago, 
Miami, El Paso and San Diego - and two in New York. Maybe even New 
Hampshire, whose case involves a face-to-face meeting between El 
Chapo and an FBI informant. New York prosecutors could legitimately 
argue that they have expertise in putting away international bad 
guys. Chicago reportedly has living witnesses ready to testify. And 
how about some consideration for San Diego, which filed the first 
indictment 20 years ago, and has successfully prosecuted members of 
another Mexican cartel run by the Arrellano-Felix family?

Ultimately, Lynch must leave politics out of her calculation. This 
case is too important to lose.

Why? For one thing, Mexicans are counting on the U.S. to be able to 
do what their justice system could not: keep Guzman in jail while he 
answers to accusations about his part in decades of cartel-sponsored 
bloodshed and corruption. Convicting the head of just one of Mexico's 
illegal drug cartels may not stop the flow of cocaine and heroin to 
the U.S. But bringing justice to the perpetrators for so much death 
and carnage is not just important symbolically; it sends a message to 
other drug kingpins that they are not immune.

It's also an important case to Californians. Authorities allege that 
the Sinaloa cartel distributed cocaine and heroin all over the U.S., 
but perhaps no U.S. region was as central to the operation as 
Southern California. The 29-page San Diego indictment against Guzman 
and 22 other people describes a network of warehouses from Alondra 
Boulevard off Interstate 5 to Otay Mesa, which connected to Tijuana 
through a 1,416-foot tunnel.

The court documents read like a Where's Where of Southern California, 
alleging money drops, meetings and distribution stops in such 
communities as Chula Vista, Cerritos, City of Industry, Baldwin Park, 
La Mirada, Paramount and Victorville. The cartel allegedly trucked 
tons of cocaine hidden in fake boxes of soap as well as chiles and 
other grocery products with the help of food importers Jesus, Jose 
and Antonio Reynoso. The case in San Diego got new life in October 
when Antonio Reynoso was extradited to the U.S. to face 
drug-trafficking charges.

It may be as long as a year before Guzman arrives in the U.S. to face 
charges that could range from trafficking to murder. The timing is up 
to new Mexican Attorney General Arely Gomez Gonzalez, whose 
predecessor, Jesus Murrillo Karam, famously boasted that the U.S. 
could have Guzman after he served 300 or 400 years in a Mexican 
prison. Six months later, Guzman escaped from a high-security prison 
through a mile-long tunnel connected to his cell.

Gomez is wise to see the benefits of extradition. And she would be 
wiser still to expedite the process as much as possible. El Chapo's 
lawyers are trying to stop extradition, claiming their client can't 
get a fair trial in the United States because of anti-Mexican 
sentiment such as that stirred up by presidential candidate Donald 
Trump. And no doubt the drug lord's engineers are already plotting a 
third escape in case the lawyers' motions are thrown out and Guzman 
is threatened with transport to a "supermax" prison in the U.S.

In any case, there will be time enough for Lynch to do a thorough 
assessment of the relative strengths of the various indictments and 
choose the jurisdiction with the strongest charges, the most capable 
prosecutors and the best chance of winning their case - and ending 
this one bloody chapter in the long brutal drug war.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom