MEXICO SHIPS LEADING DRUG SUSPECT TO U.S.

A suspected leading member of the Arellano Felix drug cartel was extradited
to San Diego from Mexico City yesterday, the first action taken under a
precedent-setting Mexican Supreme Court decision that cleared the way for
Mexicans to be sent to the United States to stand trial.

Arturo "Kitty" Paez Martinez, a Tijuana man in his mid-30s, is charged with
smuggling more than 2,200 pounds of cocaine into the United States for
Tijuana's Arellano Felix cartel.

The extradition signals an important step toward closer cooperation between
the United States and Mexico on drug trafficking.

It comes the day after Mexican President Vicente Fox announced, during a
visit with President Bush in Washington, the arrest of a major drug
trafficking suspect in Guadalajara.

According to the Mexican Attorney General's Office, Paez was flown out
under heavy guard from the international airport of Toluca near Mexico
City. After a stop in El Paso, the plane carrying Paez was expected to
arrive in San Diego late last night.

The extradition of accused drug smugglers had been a point of contention
between the U.S. and Mexican governments.

Although an extradition treaty has existed since 1980, it was only under
the government of former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo that Mexico
began to extradite its own citizens.

Until the Supreme Court ruling, however, Mexican suspects were able to get
injunctions against extradition fairly easily.

Gregory Vega, U.S. attorney for San Diego, said, "This extradition is
unprecedented and marks the beginning of a new era between the United
States and Mexico." He said the extradition shows that Mexico "is no longer
and will not be a safe haven for drug traffickers in general and the
Arellano Felix organization in particular."

Donald Thornhill, spokesman for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in
San Diego, said, "It sends a clear signal to the Arellano Felix
(organization) that there's a new president in Mexico and he's serious
about taking these cartels out."

U.S. authorities said they have been working behind the scenes with Mexican
authorities on the possibility of an extradition since January's Supreme
Court ruling.

"This signals a radical change," said Jesus Blancornelas, a Tijuana
journalist whose bodyguard was shot to death and who nearly lost his own
life following a November 1997 attack by members of the Arellano Felix
cartel. "This will strike fear among the Arellano Felix (group) and all
other drug traffickers."

Drug-trafficking suspects have resisted being sent to the United States for
trial because they face longer prison terms, and possible life
imprisonment. At least one alleged Mexican trafficker has fought
extradition on grounds that life imprisonment is cruel and unusual punishment.

A member of Tijuana's upper crust, Paez was arrested in Tijuana by Mexican
federal agents on Nov. 12, 1997, while dining at a Japanese restaurant.

Paez faces two indictments in San Diego. In the first, handed down by a
grand jury in June 1997, Paez is accused of conspiring to distribute more
than 1,000 kilograms of cocaine between 1990 and 1995.

The second indictment is more sweeping. The 28-page document charges him
with cocaine smuggling counts and the charge known as the "kingpin" count,
which can result in a life sentence -- or in rare cases in the death sentence.

According to the indictment, Paez oversaw a cocaine smuggling and
distribution ring that funneled drug loads into Southern California and
other parts of the United States.

The indictment says many of the drug deals took place throughout San Diego
County. In one deal, allegedly arranged by Paez, two accused members of the
ring picked up a several-hundred-kilogram load of cocaine from someone in a
parking lot of a Chula Vista shopping center.

In 1992, the organization began using backpackers who smuggled cocaine
across the border into the United States, where the drugs were loaded into
the trunks of cars located in junk yards, according to the indictment. The
cocaine was then moved to a ranch in Riverside, where it was stored until
being shipped on to other places including New York, Illinois and Los Angeles.

Federal authorities allege that Paez's ring included more than 10 people
that Paez supervised. One of the men accused in the indictment of helping
Paez was David Barron Corona.

Barron was killed in 1997 by a ricochet fragment during the attempted
assassination of Blancornelas, who had made exposing the Arellanos one of
his newspaper's crusades. Barron had long been described by authorities as
a notorious Logan Heights gang leader.

U.S. authorities had long speculated that Paez's extradition would also
open up the possibility that other Mexican nationals accused of U.S. crimes
would follow.

Vega said, "I believe the extradition gives force and power to President
Vicente Fox's vow to rid Mexico of drug traffickers."

Fox on Thursday announced the Guadalajara arrest of Adan Amezcua on charges
related to illegal methamphetamine production. Amezcua's brothers Jose and
Luis also are jailed and have resisted attempts to extradite them to the
United States.

"Now that the three Amezcua brothers are in jail, certainly it's another
great battle against drug trafficking in Mexico," Fox said in a news
conference after meeting with Bush.