2 Suspects, Drugs Worth Millions Flown to Mexico City

Mexican federal police sent two airplanes to Tijuana Sunday to transport two accused drug smugglers, 21 federal undercover agents and nearly 1,500 pounds of cocaine reputedly worth $250 million to Mexico City where the accused will be tried.

The flight capped an investigation by Mexican police and Interpol that resulted in the arrest of 10 people from Colombia and the largest seizure of drugs in Mexican history.

The arrests, made beginning Friday and continuing through Saturday, came after meetings earlier in the week between U.S. Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III and Mexico’s attorney general, Dr. Sergio Garcia Ramirez, on how their countries could cooperate to apprehend drug traffickers.

Terry Eastland, a U.S. Justice Department spokesman, said Monday that the arrests over the weekend “may well be a result of these talks.”

“It was clear to us that the Mexican government took the problem seriously,” said Eastland. “In the past there had been a tendency to suggest that the problem lies north of the border. We saw evidence that the government is ready to crack down on drug traffickers. This arrest is evidence of that seriousness.”

United States law officials did not take part in the arrests this weekend.

Salvador Diaz Hernandez, coordinator of a program called Campaign against Drugs, said the 10 drug smugglers arrested during the weekend in Mexico were all Colombians and were part of a network to bring cocaine into the United States from South America. Arrests were made in the Mexican state of Chiapas on the Guatemalan border, as well as near Mexico City, in the state of Guanajuato and on the road from Tecate to Tijuana.

The 1,500 pounds of cocaine were seized after police arrested two men driving a moving van on the road outside Tecate, a few miles south of the U.S. border. The driver was a 75-year-old engineer; an American was waiting in Tijuana to transport the drugs to the United States, where the final destination was believed to be New York City, Diaz said. The American was not arrested.

U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents are following up on the arrests by investigating where the cocaine was headed, said DEA spokesman Ron D’Ulisse. He said it is not unusual for drugs destined for New York to go through Mexico.

“The U.S.-Mexico border is a soft underbelly,” D’Ulisse said.

Diaz said the Colombians arrested Saturday are believed to be part of Mexico’s largest drug ring and may have made at least three other large deliveries of cocaine to the United States.

The shipment seized Saturday was 97% pure and had a street value of $250 million, said Diaz. D’Ulisse, however, offered an estimate of $150 million.

All of those arrested have been sent to Mexico City, where they will face drug smuggling charges.