MEXICO ARRESTS ALLEGED DRUG LORD ON U.S. EXTRADITION REQUEST

Miguel Caro Quintero, an alleged drug cartel leader who appears on the U.S.
Drug Kingpin list, was arrested Thursday in northern Mexico and was being
held on a U.S. extradition request.

Mexico's Justice Department announced the arrest at a news conference, and
transferred the burly Quintero to Mexico City aboard a plane with the
intention of sending him to the United States, where he faces money
laundering and drug charges.

Caro Quintero has allegedly headed a cocaine- and marijuana-trafficking
ring based in the northern state of Sonora since 1985, the same year in
which his brother, Rafael, was imprisoned for the torture-murder of U.S.
drug agent Enrique Camarena, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.

U.S. officials have called Miguel Caro Quintero one of the primary figures
in the drug trade, saying he controlled a large portion of trafficking
along Mexico's northwestern border with the United States.

Caro Quintero is wanted on a several U.S. charges, most recently a 1994
indictment in Arizona alleging money laundering and marijuana trafficking.
The United States issued a provisional warrant asking Mexican authorities
to arrest him more than two years ago.

Caro Quintero was recently believed to be living on a ranch near
Hermosillo, Sonora, 165 miles south of the Arizona border. He was arrested
Thursday in Los Mochis, in the neighboring state of Sinaloa, while driving
on a city street.

Authorities reported he was carrying a pistol at the time of his arrest,
and prosecutors were considering bringing illegal weapons possession
charges. He was being held at a maximum security prison just outside Mexico
City.

Mexican authorities arrested him in 1992 but the Mexican charges against
him were later dropped.

In a decision earlier this year, Mexico's Supreme Court overturned the last
legal barriers to extraditing Mexican citizens to the United States.

The U.S. Drug Kingpin Act allows the U.S. government to freeze bank
accounts and other assets of people it identifies as drug traffickers. It
also penalizes companies that do business with those on the list.