JESSE - 1-20-2007 at 01:06 AM
A big step in the right direction
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico has extradited drug kingpins Osiel Card##as and Hector "Guero" Palma to the United States along with several other
major traffickers, the government said late on Friday.
President Felipe Calderon took office in December and quickly launched a major crackdown on Mexico's main drug cartels in an attempt to halt a
gruesome surge in violence that claimed more than 2,000 lives last year.
The United States welcomed the extraditions and said the men had arrived on flights from Mexico on Friday.
Osiel Card##as is considered the leader, or former leader, of the Gulf Cartel. He was arrested and imprisoned in Mexico in 2003. Hector "El Guero"
Palma is a top associate of Mexico's most wanted man Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, who heads another powerful cartel.
Guzman infamously broke out of a top security prison hidden in a laundry van.
Tony Garza, the U.S. ambassador to Mexico, said the decision to send the traffickers to the United States was "a monumental moment."
"Some of the most brutal criminals in the history of our two countries have been extradited from Mexico to the United States to face justice for the
crimes they have committed," he said in a statement.
Drug kingpins held in Mexican prisons are often able to keep their cartels running from behind bars, making extradition to the United States a key
tool in limiting their power.
"The Mexican state will not tolerate the violence and will respond with total strength against all criminal organizations that damage the interests of
the nation," the president's office said in a statement.
In recent weeks Calderon has sent thousands of troops across Mexico to clamp down on Guzman's Sinaloa Cartel and its rival Gulf Cartel. The rival
gangs are fighting a vicious war in several states for control of trafficking routes and opium and marijuana plantations.
Calderon's government also extradited Gilberto and Ismael Higuera, brothers who were key lieutenants in the Arellano Felix family drug cartel based in
the violent border city of Tijuana.
Bruce R Leech - 1-20-2007 at 11:44 AM
This is good news. I hope they keep doing this. The US should use these people for ballistic tests.