EXTRADITION OF MEXICAN SEEN AS REFORM BELLWETHER

Drug Traffickers Fear Imprisonment In U.S., Officials Say

MEXICO CITY - Adan Amezcua, the "king of methamphetamines," was
gloating after his arrest recently near Guadalajara, in western
Mexico.

It wasn't his first arrest, and Mr. Amezcua crowed that he would walk again.

Mr. Amezcua had reason to gloat: Mexican prosecutors have a poor
record of nailing high-profile criminals; systemic corruption and
ineptness within their ranks cripple them.

But Mr. Amezcua's hubris was short-lived. This week a judge in
Guadalajara ruled that he must stay in jail while prosecutors prepare
him for trial on charges of racketeering and using illicit funds to
buy property.

That appears to set up Mr. Amezcua for extradition to the United
States, where he faces drug trafficking charges. If Mr. Amezcua is
extradited, it would mark a major victory for Mexican authorities
after an embarrassing series of setbacks. It would also cement
Mexico's new attitude on exporting captured drug lords to the United
States.

Mexican officials used to view U.S. extradition requests as an
infringement on Mexican sovereignty. But with the arrival of
reformist President Vicente Fox and his new team of drug busters,
extradition has become a potent weapon.

This year, a Mexican Supreme Court ruling made it easier to extradite
Mexican citizens to face U.S. indictments. Last week, Everardo
"Kitty" Paez, allegedly a ranking member of the Tijuana-based
Arrellano Felix drug syndicate, became the first Mexican extradited
to the United States since the high court's ruling.

"There is nothing drug traffickers fear more than doing time in the
United States," said Ana Maria Salazar, former U.S. Defense
Department drug policy administrator who now teaches at the
Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico.

Extradition has worked so well that Mexican prosecutors think that
infamous trafficker Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman bought his way out of
prison because he is high on the list of 17 Mexican "extraditables."

Law enforcement officials said that some fugitives - including Mr.
Guzman - have recently offered to turn themselves in to Mexican
authorities, so long as they're not turned over to U.S. authorities.
Officials ruled out making such deals with traffickers.

While extradition and a series of arrests of cartel lieutenants are
encouraging, analysts said, too many big fish are still beating the
law in Mexico.

Although Mexican authorities have managed to convict the brother of a
former president on murder conspiracy charges, and an army general
was linked to drug dealers, Mexico still has a poor record of nailing
its high-profile criminals, legal analysts said.

The real failure in Mexico, they said, is the country's attorney
general's office. It's supposed to be the vanguard against organized
crime and official corruption, but the agency is in disarray after
years of corruption and poor management.

Its new administrators said it will take years to repair the agency,
known as the PGR in Spanish.

"The great fantasy is that corruption has ended," said Rafael Macedo
de la Concha, who left his Mexican Army prosecutor's job in December
to become Mexico's attorney general. "The great reality is that
[corruption] is there, and we are working intensely ... but there is
much to do."

Indeed, the loss column for Mexican prosecutors is long. Just last
week, prosecutors received more bad news.

* Former Mexico City Mayor Oscar Villareal Espinosa, accused of
misappropriating $45 million, learned that a judge had barred
prosecutors from jailing him when he returns from Nicaragua to face
trial.

* Fugitive banker Carlos Cabal Peniche may also skirt justice when he
returns to Mexico from custody in Australia; prosecutors are
scrambling to salvage a case that's being picked apart by judges.

* News reports last week hinted that Mario Villanueva may soon turn
himself in to Mexican authorities because he's confident that the
government's case against him will also collapse. The former governor
of Mexico's Caribbean state of Quintana Roo has been on the lam since
the summer of 1998, when federal prosecutors revealed that they were
close to indicting him on charges that he aided drug traffickers.

Mexican legal experts said the country's crippled prosecutors and
corrupt state and local police forces give major crime figures an
understandable sense of comfort.

"Systemic police corruption is only part of the problem," said
Guadalupe Gonzalez, a criminologist with the Center for Economic
Research and Teaching in Mexico City. "There are also confusing legal
prerequisites in Mexico that hinder prosecutors. If you have the
money for legal talent that knows how to obtain injunctions and is
well connected, you can manipulate the system."

When Mr. Macedo de la Concha first arrived at his Mexico City
headquarters, he found an agency so corrupt that supervisors were
auctioning off lucrative field assignments known to be subsidized by
drug dealers.

There were thousands of ignored PGR arrest warrants - so many that
"criminals were walking the streets with impunity," Mr. Macedo de la
Concha said.

He also found dilapidated facilities and outdated equipment that he
considered "an embarrassment." Worse, he found disturbing vacancies
in investigative units - including 2,300 in just two key departments.

Mexican criminal law is based on the labyrinthine Napoleanic system,
which essentially forces the accused to prove their innocence. But
the system also allows citizens quick protection from prosecution if
they can convince judges that the government is acting improperly.
Because of corruption and broad definitions, judges routinely hand
out such injunctions, called amparos in Spanish.

Ambiguous laws also allow judges to often discount police evidence as
insufficient.

"Combine that with poorly trained and educated investigators, and you
have police and prosecutorial performance that's among the worst in
the world," Ms. Gonzalez said.