Road block snares a top drug suspect in western Mexico
By ANDREW DOWNIE

MEXICO CITY One of three brothers thought to be responsible for the vast
increase in methamphetamines trafficking from Mexico to the United States
was arrested in western Mexico, the country's Federal Attorney General's
Office said Sunday.

Mexican soldiers arrested Adan Amezcua Contreras, 28, at a roadblock just
outside Colima, the capital of the western state of the same name. Officials
contend he is the operations manager of a massive methamphetamine and
cocaine smuggling ring run by him and his two siblings, Jose de Jesus
Amezcua Contreras and Luis Amezcua Contreras.

Adan Amezcua and his brothers, both of whom are still free, are featured on
the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's list of Top 20 drug traffickers.

The Amezcuas are responsible in large part for the huge increase in
methamphetamine traffic to the United States, seizures of which went from
zero to 695 kilos between 1991 and 1995, U.S. officials said.

U.S. drug czar Barry McCaffrey has identified methamphetamines, a synthetic
drug also known as speed, as one of the most serious narcotic threats facing
the United States. McCaffrey called the drug "worse than crack."

Amezcua was detained in an area where the brothers are said to base a large
part of their operations. He was carrying a .38caliber pistol and under
interrogation, Amezcua admitted he was a member of the family's drug ring,
the Mexican attorney general's office said.

A spokesperson at the office did not know when he was arrested or where he
was being held. However, Amezcua was charged with drug trafficking and
illegal weapons possession, among other crimes, Mexican officials said.

DEA officials said Amezcua is the third highest ranking of the three
brothers, and he is not believed to be wanted in the United States. However,
Jose de Jesus has been indicted on cocaine trafficking charges in San Diego,
and Luis is wanted in Los Angeles for methamphetamine distribution and money
laundering.

The Amezcua organization is "probably the world's largest smuggler of (the
precursor chemical) ephedrine and clandestine producer of methamphetamine,"
according to DEA Administrator Thomas A. Constantine.

Constantine said the Amezcua organization imports chemicals from India
through Thailand into Mexico, where the chemicals are taken to
methamphetamine laboratories in Mexico and the United States.

Much of their business is thought to center in Jalisco, where the brothers
were born, and Colima, the neighboring state also on Mexico's Pacific coast.
The organization is said to import chemicals and cocaine from Colombia to
ports in both states. Some of the biggest cocaine seizures in recent years
have come in the Colima port city of Manzanillo.

U.S. authorities lauded those seizures and in recent months have praised the
government of Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo for what it says is
increased cooperation in the war on drugs. Zedillo spent the weekend in
Washington meeting with President Clinton and other American officials. The
talks focused on improving antidrug efforts.