Mexico extradited 15 of its most notorious drug lords to the United States for prosecution over the weekend, including two whom authorities believe have ties to an enormous cocaine operation on a 500-acre ranch east of Colorado Springs.
Until late last year, the Mexican government had refused to extradite cartel leaders to the United States, claiming they should be punished in Mexico.
Almost overnight late last week, Mexico agreed to extradite the drug lords.
“We did receive word on Friday that the Mexican government had taken this step and was prepared to act quickly to send these individuals to us,” said deputy U.S. Attorney General Paul J. McNulty on Monday. “It happened faster than anyone expected.”
Around 7 p.m. Friday a high-security plane carrying two drug lords landed at Ellington Air Force Base near Houston. Another plane carrying three more landed two hours later and a third carrying 10 men landed just after midnight, McNulty said.
Included on the flights were two men who were indicted by a federal grand jury in Denver in 2003. Miguel Angel Arriola Marquez and Saul Saucedo Chaides, are both affiliated with the Juarez and Federation cartels, authorities said. U.S. attorney’s office spokesman said Monday that the two men will be moved to Denver “in an unspecified time” and tried.
“(They) will be the highest-level cocaine traffickers ever to set foot in a Colorado courtroom,” said Paul Roach, a DEA agent in Colorado Springs.
DEA administrator Karen Tandy praised the Mexican leaders.
“These are courageous people, that the Supreme Court of Mexico has extradited cartel leaders and leadership across the board in Mexico at high levels into the U.S.,” she said. “The resolve of Attorney General Medina Mora and President (Felipe) Calderon is extraordinary. This will produce more violence but Mexico expects it and is prepared to meet it.”
McNulty said the U.S., in requesting the extraditions, agreed not to sentence the drug lords to death, if they are convicted.
DEA agent Roach said Marquez and Saucedo were responsible for bringing 1,300 pounds of cocaine each week to a ranch in Peyton, 20 miles east of Colorado Springs. The drugs were then repackaged and shipped to Chicago and New York.
Payments for the cocaine were shipped back to Colorado in cellophane-wrapped bundles of $10,000 and $25,000, then laundered through meatpacking, trucking and cattle-ranching operations in Mexico, Roach said.
Federal and local agents raided the ranch in 2004.
