Mexico extradites drug cartel bosses to U.S.
Source: Reuters
(Adds sentencing details) By Frank Jack Daniel MEXICO CITY, Jan 20 (Reuters) - Mexico has extradited four drug kingpins to the United States, striking a blow to warring cartels that killed 2,000 people last year and have turned large areas of the country into lawless badlands. Osiel Cardenas, who allegedly ran the Gulf cartel, was the most notorious of 11 drug traffickers flown to face trial in the United States on Friday. He was arrested and jailed after a shootout in 2003, but continued to run drugs from prison. Government video showed Cardenas, who is indicted in Texas for threatening to kill an FBI agent, shuffling in leg chains onto a plane on Friday. He was guarded by a small group of heavily armed police in ski-masks and body armor. Extradited to face a cocaine distributing indictment in California was Hector "El Guero" Palma, a top associate of Mexico's most wanted man Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, who heads the powerful Sinaloa cartel and broke out of a top security prison hidden in a laundry van six years ago. President Felipe Calderon took office in December and quickly sent troops and elite police units to tackle Mexico's main drug gangs and halt a gruesome surge in violence as rival cartels fight over smuggling routes and drug fields. A total of 15 men were flown to the United States on Friday after their appeals were exhausted, a step Washington applauded. "Never before has the United States received from Mexico such a large number of major drug defendants and other criminals for prosecution in this country," U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said on Saturday. Mexican officials said some of the men had outstanding sentences in Mexico but would be tried and could serve time in the United States before returning to Mexico. FIERCE RETALIATION Last year, former President Vicente Fox said he would extradite more capos, but said the cartels would fight back. In the 1980s, a Colombian policy of handing cartel leaders to the United States led to bombings and assassinations that killed dozens. The government eventually backed down. Drug kingpins held in Mexican prisons often run their cartels from behind bars, making extradition key to cutting their power. "The Mexican state will not tolerate the violence and will respond with total strength against all criminal organizations that damage the interests of the nation," Calderon's office said in a statement on Friday. The government also extradited Gilberto and Ismael Higuera, brothers who were lieutenants in the Arellano Felix family drug cartel based in the violent border city of Tijuana. Others in the group included lower-level traffickers, as well as an indicted murderer and indicted sex offenders. In recent weeks, Calderon has sent thousands of soldiers and federal police across Mexico to clamp down on rival gangs fighting a vicious war in several states for control of cocaine trafficking routes and opium and marijuana plantations. The gangs often torture their victims and last year fought gun battles by day in tourist city Acapulco. They decapitated rivals, including policemen, leaving their heads in public view. The government swoop is popular in Mexico and with Washington, but crime experts warn the initiative will fail unless it also attacks rampant corruption that puts police and justice officials on the cartels' payroll. Few major arrests have been made since the offensive started in December.
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