DRUG INFORMANT ACCUSED IN DEATHS TO BE EXTRADITED

US Sending Man To Mexico; Agency Says It Knew Little Of Activities

EL PASO - U.S. officials soon are expected to extradite to Mexico a
controversial figure who took part in several killings for a Mexican
drug cartel while working as a U.S.-paid informant, said government
sources familiar with the case.

Guillermo Eduardo Ramirez Peyro, a.k.a. "Lalo," lost a bid to seek
asylum and faces extradition, according to two U.S. officials who
spoke on condition of anonymity.

The extradition would end the U.S. government's relationship with a
man who once provided valuable intelligence on Mexico's Juarez cartel
and its murky operations, but who also is accused of participating in
a number of cartel-ordered assassinations, including the killing of a
U.S. citizen.

But the extradition is not likely to end the
controversy surrounding the handling of the informant by the U.S.
Immigration Customs Enforcement - or ICE. Critics have long insisted
that the informant was in a position of power and not merely a
submissive spectator in criminal activity, as privately claimed by
agency officials.

"He's a liability because he knows everything our government did,"
said Raul Loya, an attorney representing some of the families of
victims of the Juarez cartel. "The U.S. government wants him to stay
hidden, so by extraditing him, he in effect disappears in Mexico and
the U.S. government wipes its hands clean."

The El Paso office of ICE has been in upheaval since March 2004, when
The Dallas Morning News first published details about the informant's case.

Agency spokeswoman Leticia Zamarripa in El Paso wouldn't comment on
the status of Mr. Ramirez Peyro but issued a statement:

"ICE has completed an internal investigation; however the Privacy Act
prohibits release of information related to matters such as this. In
general, ICE takes any and all allegations of misconduct seriously
and resolves them with expediency."

Mexican authorities have a standing warrant for Mr. Ramirez Peyro in
connection with the January 2002 discovery of 12 bodies in the back
yard of a suburban Ciudad Juarez home.

According to documents and transcripts: Mr. Ramirez Peyro had the
keys to the house where the victims were executed. He assigned
corrupt policemen their roles in several killings, going so far as to
recommend how best to eliminate the victims, whether by shooting or
by suffocation. He called in gravediggers to bury bodies, paid off
the killers and notified his contact that the job was done. He
described the killings as carne asadas, or barbecues.

In at least one of case, U.S. officials said, agency supervisors had
been notified ahead of time and listened in on an open cellphone line
as the killing took place, an allegation that ICE authorities have
privately denied. ICE officials also say they had limited knowledge
of Mr. Ramirez Peyro's alleged criminal activities.

ICE Investigation

So far, ICE's internal investigation has led to the
removal or transfer of several officials. Top supervisors Giovanni
Gaudioso and Patricia Kramer were transferred to Washington from El
Paso. Ms. Kramer resigned under pressure last October, U.S. officials said.

Two agents were suspended without pay for about a month. Another
remains on an extended leave of absence, and at least four directors
have come and gone over the past two years.

Even so, Congress hasn't shown interest in investigating the agency,
said Sandalio Gonzalez, the former special agent in charge of the El
Paso field division of the Drug Enforcement Administration who blew
the whistle on ICE. Mr. Gonzalez said he's met twice with Senate
committee investigators with no results. Calls to the panels weren't
returned Thursday.

"The real question is who polices the executive branch of
government," said Mr. Gonzalez. "It's Congress' job, and they have
done nothing." ICE, which reports to the federal Department of
Homeland Security, falls under the executive branch.

Mr. Ramirez Peyro was part of a criminal organization led by
Chihuahua state and municipal police officers who worked for the
powerful Ciudad Juarez cartel.

Officers Questioned

Nineteen officers were detained, questioned and
then released following the discovery of the 12 bodies in Ciudad
Juarez, including that of Luis Padilla-Cardona, a U.S. citizen from
the nearby town of Socorro, Texas.

Six other officers - including Miguel Loya Gallegos, the Chihuahua
state police commander who officials say was a ringleader of the
cartel's Gatekeepers, or La Linea, escaped and continue to elude authorities.

Mr. Ramirez Peyro, a former Mexican federal highway policeman,
quickly rose through the ranks of the cartel, according to U.S. officials.

By 2000, he was working for ICE as an informant, providing valuable
information about the cartel, leading authorities to the mass grave
and helping U.S. authorities on one of the largest cigarette
smuggling cases ever. He also helped confiscate tons of marijuana and
cocaine and personally turned in Heriberto Santillan Tabares, another
member of the cartel's Gatekeepers, said U.S. and Mexican officials.
Mr. Santillan was sentenced last April to 25 years in prison.

In late 2004, Mr. Ramirez Peyro returned to El Paso and arranged for
an acquaintance to pick up a package of money owed to him. The man,
waiting at a Whataburger parking lot, was killed - presumably by
members of the Juarez cartel who wanted to kill Mr. Ramirez Peyro in
retaliation for his role as an informant.

A U.S. federal judge initially approved Mr. Ramirez Peyro's asylum
request in July, but the decision was appealed and overturned in
January, U.S. officials said.

Leaders of the Juarez cartel still want him dead, one official said.

"You don't go up against the U.S. government and Vicente Carrillo
Fuentes and expect to live to tell about it," said the U.S. official,
referring to the cartel's leader. "Lalo is a dead man walking."