BIG CATCH, TEAM EFFORT

Reputed drug lord Miguel Caro Quintero is so cocky that back in 1997
he called a radio station in his hometown of Hermosillo, Mexico, to
refute the charges made against him by the chief of the U.S. Drug
Enforcement Agency. He gave his address and challenged authorities on
both sides of the border to come get him. Last month, at the request
of the U.S. government, agents from Mexico's attorney general's
office collared the man alleged to have inherited the infamous Sonora
cocaine and marijuana cartel from his jailed older brother.

The arrest is the latest example of increased cooperation and trust
between Mexican and U.S. authorities and an encouraging sign of
progress in the effort to dismantle the criminal empires that flood
U.S. streets with life-sapping products while making Mexico corrupt
and increasingly violent. Now, the Justice Department should file the
formal request for extradition that will set in motion the legal
process to bring Caro Quintero north for trial.

The Mexican Supreme Court cleared the way for this by ruling that a
Mexican national can be extradited as long as the sentence would not
be execution or life in prison. In Mexico, the maximum penalty for a
crime is 70 years, which should be plenty for Caro Quintero if he is
found guilty, given that he was born in 1963. The suspect is now in a
high-security prison in Mexico City. If all goes as authorities plan,
this man who believed himself invincible will face four federal drug
and money-laundering indictments in Arizona and Colorado and live out
his life in an American jail with people whose lives cocaine helped
destroy.