MEXICO SENDS 4 KINGPINS TO FACE TRIAL IN THE U.S.

MEXICO CITY -- Breaking with longstanding practice, Mexico extradited
four major drug traffickers to the United States late Friday and sent
a signal that the country's newly elected president, Felipe Calderon,
is serious about cooperating with his northern neighbor to dismantle
cartels.

United States law enforcement officials have long complained about
Mexican reluctance to hand over drug traffickers indicted in crimes
north of the Rio Grande, as many drug kingpins have continued to
operate their deadly networks from inside Mexican prisons, where they
have been able to corrupt officials.

Until now, however, the Mexican government has resisted the
extraditions, arguing that the drug cartel leaders must face justice
here first. Also, until a recent Supreme Court ruling, Mexican
officials were unable to extradite criminals because they face the
death penalty in the United States, which is banned in Mexico. The
court overturned that rule.

"The actions overnight by the Mexican government are unprecedented in
their scope and importance," the United States attorney general,
Alberto R. Gonzales, said in a statement on Saturday.

Osiel Cardenas Guillen, the leader of the Gulf Cartel in Tamaulipas
State, was among the 21 people flown under heavy armed guard to the
United States on Friday night and handed over to federal authorities.
He is under indictment in Texas for trafficking in marijuana and
threatening to kill three law enforcement agents.

The Mexican government also turned over Ismael and Gilberto Higuera
Guerrero, brothers who were high-ranking members of the Arellano-Felix
cartel in Tijuana, as well as Hector Palma Salazar, a former leader in
the Sinaloa cartel. All face racketeering and drug trafficking charges
in Southern California.

The Sinaloa cartel controls the border around El Paso. Joaquin Guzman,
known as El Chapo, escaped from prison in 2001 after bribing officials
and still oversees the gang, along with several other important
traffickers who have somehow eluded the Mexican police.

Former President Vicente Fox, who left office in December, created a
special force to combat organized crime and arrested scores of
high-ranking mobsters, weakening the three major cartels in Tijuana
and Sinaloa State in the west and Tamaulipas State, along the eastern
Texas border.

But his administration failed to break up the Sinaloa mob, and the
arrests of people like Mr. Cardenas and his counterpart in Tijuana,
Benjamin Arellano-Felix, set off an underworld turf war that has
increased in brutality and claimed thousands of lives in recent years.

Officials at the Drug Enforcement Agency privately voiced frustration
with the Fox administration for not extraditing the drug kingpins to
the United States, where they would be unable to run their networks
from prison. A similar tactic proved effective in Colombia, Panama and
other countries where drugs are produced and shipped.

Mr. Calderon and his attorney general, Eduardo Medina Mora, did not
immediately say why they had switched course. The attorney general's
office put out a statement saying simply that the people extradited
had run out of appeals against extradition and that Mexico wanted them
to face trial in the United States before the time limit ran out on
the charges there.

But all are serving sentences or facing trials in Mexico. In the past,
the Mexican authorities have said those were barriers to
extradition.

A high-ranking federal prosecutor, speaking on the condition of
anonymity, said President Calderon had decided to extradite the drug
traffickers despite their pending legal proceedings. The aim is to
make it difficult for them to communicate with their lieutenants in
Mexico. "It breaks up the entire logistical structure of these
organizations here," the prosecutor said.

Besides the four top drug traffickers, the Mexicans extradited seven
other lower-level drug dealers, among them Gilberto Salinas Doria, who
is wanted in the Southern District of New York on charges of helping
to import 200 tons of cocaine.

They delivered four other prisoners wanted on charges of murder, drug
trafficking and trafficking in prostitutes, officials said. One of
these, Consuelo Carreto Valencia, is under indictment in New York City
on charges of smuggling women and forcing them to become prostitutes.