NO PLACE TO HIDE

The Paez Extradition Is A Breakthrough

Gregory A. Vega, United States Attorney for the Southern District of
California, had it exactly right Saturday when he described Mexico's
extradition of accused drug kingpin Everardo Arturo Paez Martinez to San
Diego as "truly a historic event."

Despite a 20-year-old extradition treaty and rampant cross-border drug
crimes plaguing both countries, Paez is the first exclusively Mexican
national wanted in the United States for large-scale drug dealing to be
extradited to this country for trial. Accordingly, Paez's dramatic, heavily
guarded arrival Friday night at Lindbergh Field in a Drug Enforcement
Administration aircraft from Mexico City via El Paso was, in fact, a
historic first.

Equally heartening, it was a potent and tangible sign that Mexico's new,
reformist President Vicente Fox means what he says in pledging a crackdown
against Mexico's powerful drug-dealing cartels. As in Colombia during the
1980s, nothing better signals full cooperation with Washington in
countering the international narcotics trade than a demonstrated
willingness to extradite major drug-trafficking figures for trial in the
United States.

And also as in Colombia, Mexico's cartels may choose violent retaliation
for Fox's extradition policy. If so, a courageous Fox should get whatever
law enforcement assistance he needs and requests from the United States.

Just as surely, Paez's extradition sent a chilling signal to the Arellano
Felix Organization, the vicious narco-trafficking cartel based in Tijuana.

Federal prosecutors say Paez was a top lieutenant in the AFO who had
frequent access to its leaders, Benjamin and Ramon Arellano Felix. Facing a
potential life sentence if convicted of the extensive, multi-ton quantity
cocaine smuggling and distribution charges against him, Paez could well
decide that cooperating with U.S. authorities is his only hope for better
options. A cooperating Paez, in turn, could inflict substantial damage on
his alleged former associates and the murderous criminal syndicate they
operate.

Paez could provide U.S. authorities with the most intimate and extensive
revelations yet about the operations and principal figures of the Tijuana
cartel. Among those revelations might be inside information on the lengthy
list of police and government officials in Mexico -- at the local, state
and federal level -- on the AFO's bribery payroll, said by some to total $1
million a week.

While it's true that Paez has been in custody in Mexico since November 1997
(held on a provisional U.S. arrest warrant), and thus theoretically out of
circulation, he could almost certainly still provide invaluable
intelligence to U.S. prosecutors and investigators. Presumably, he could
also bolster the U.S. Justice Department's cases against the Arellano
brothers, both of whom are also under federal indictment. Ramon, in
addition, is on the FBI's 10-Most Wanted list.

If, conversely, Paez decides against cooperating with federal prosecutors,
the amply documented case against him still makes conviction likely, if not
virtually certain. That would mean a sentence of decades to life in prison.
In Mexico, drug money can buy judges, prosecutors, and, if necessary, whole
prison staffs. Here, Paez would do hard time in a maximum-security prison,
part of a criminal justice system that cannot be bought or intimidated.
Mexico's drug thugs know that. It's why they fear extradition to the United
States above all.

The Paez extradition sets the precedent. If "Kitti" Paez can be delivered
for trial here, U.S. extradition requests for other accused AFO principals
may be honored, too. Tijuana cartel kingpins on the U.S. extradition list
include the AFO's operations director, Ismael Higuera Guerrero, arrested
last year in Mexico, and the Arellano brothers, both still at large.

Vega said Saturday that Paez's extradition serves notice on Mexico's
narco-traffickers that there is now "no place to hide." That's true enough
for Paez. The Bush administration and President Fox's new government must
now work together to see that this essential precedent is followed by more
such examples until the process become routine.

The immensely wealthy and powerful drug cartels, notably including the
Arellano Felix Organization, that control the flow of cocaine, heroin,
marijuana and methamphetamines from Mexico into the United States must be
defeated.

They threaten Mexico's vital efforts to establish a rule of law. Left
unchecked, they might in time threaten Mexico's political stability. In the
United States, the AFO and other Mexican cartels supply most of the
narcotics that poison an estimated 14 million drug-using Americans, wreck
millions of lives and families, and triple or quadruple crime rates.

They won't be defeated without the fullest cooperation between the United
States and Mexico. Arturo Paez's extradition is a welcome sign of that
increased cooperation.