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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | July 2007 
US Arrests Mexico's Suspected Meth King
 Ioan Grillo - Associated Press
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| | Chinese-Mexican businessman Zhenli Ye Gon is interviewed in his lawyer's office in Queens, N.Y., in this Thursday, May 17, 2007 file photo. Mexican federal officials said on Monday, July 23, 2007, that alleged drug trafficker Zhenli Ye Gon, who is tied to the largest seizure of drug cash in world history, has been arrested in Rockville, Maryland. He is wanted in Mexico on organized crime, drug trafficking and weapons charges and Mexican officials have requested his arrest for extradition. (AP/Richard Drew) |
Mexico City - Mexico said Monday that U.S. authorities have arrested alleged methamphetamine trafficker Zhenli Ye Gon, whose mansion was the scene of what U.S. officials say was the world's largest seizure of drug cash.
Ye Gon was surprised by Drug Enforcement Administration agents at a Maryland restaurant where he was meeting with one of his lawyers, said another of his attorneys, Ning Ye.
In Washington, DEA spokesman Garrison Courtney said Ye Gon was arrested on drug smuggling and money laundering charges, adding that the fugitive was tracked down by agents and did not turn himself in.
Ye Gon is wanted in Mexico on organized crime, drug trafficking and weapons charges. Mexican officials have requested his arrest for extradition.
In March, Mexican agents found more than $207 million in dollar, peso and euro bills in a mansion owned by Ye Gon in one of the capital's most exclusive neighborhoods.
Mexican Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora said the money was connected to one of the hemisphere's largest networks for trafficking pseudoephedrine, the main ingredient in methamphetamines. He said the ring had been operating since 2004, illegally importing the substance and selling it to a drug cartel that mixed it into the crystal form and imported into the United States.
Ye Gon said the chemicals imported by his company, Unimed Pharm Chem de Mexico SA, were legitimate and intended for use in prescription drugs to be made at a factory he was building in Toluca, just west of the Mexican capital.
Ye Gon also claimed that $150 million of the money belonged Mexico's ruling party, and that he was forced to store it for party officials in his mansion under threat of death during the 2006 presidential race, which Felipe Calderon narrowly won.
Calderon has called the accusations "pure fiction."
Ye, the attorney, said DEA agents swarmed a restaurant in Silver Spring, Md. at about 9:30 p.m. and raided the house where Ye Gon had been staying. He said Ye Gon went willingly.
The Mexican Attorney General's office said Ye Gon was detained in Rockville, Md. The discrepancy could not immediately be explained.
Ye said he was surprised by the arrest because he had reached a verbal agreement last week with a DEA agent in Mexico that called for Ye Gon to surrender to U.S. marshals on Thursday. In return, Ye Gon was to be tried in the United States, not Mexico, Ye said.
"Only the United States can provide the most comprehensive procedural safeguards concerning what is happening on the Mexican side," Ye said.
Ye denounced the "lousy evidence made up by Mexican government" and said Ye Gon would apply for political asylum in the U.S.
Medina Mora called the arrest "magnificent news" and said Mexican officials had 60 days to file their legal arguments for extradition.
He added that Ye Gon's girlfriend Michelle Wong has been detained in Las Vegas and she may also face criminal charges in connection with the trafficking.
Ye Gon's other U.S. lawyer, Martin F. McMahon, had said he would ask that Ye Gon be given asylum in the United States and called for congressional hearings and a DEA investigation into his client's claims.
Rogelio de la Garza, Ye Gon's lawyer in Mexico, said he feared that U.S. authorities may simply deport him to Mexico to avoid a drawn out battle in U.S. courts.
"I don't know if his visa (for the United States) has run our or not," De la Garza told The Associated Press.
U.S. anti-drug officials have praised Calderon's crackdown on Mexican traffickers since taking office. DEA chief Karen Tandy also praised Mexican agents following the March money seizure.
"This is like law enforcement hitting the ultimate jackpot. But luck had nothing to do with this windfall," Tandy said, calling it "the largest single drug-cash seizure the world has ever seen."
Associated Press Writers Michael Rubinkam in Harrisburg, Pa., and Lara Jakes Jordan in Washington contributed to this report. |
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