Suddenly It Was All Action : Good Work by Mexico City, Washington on Major Drug Case

Daniel James Fowlie, a reputed drug kingpin, had eluded federal and local investigators for years. The operation he allegedly masterminded served as a reference point for President Bush, who delivered a major address from a seized ranch in Orange County.

But Fowlie became a symbol both for the objectives of the war on drugs and for its frustrations. Six of his associates were convicted of drug-smuggling charges in the United States while he remained in Mexico, successfully eluding his day in U.S. courts. Fowlie’s extradition this week was an important new sign of cooperation in the drug war between Mexican and American authorities.

Fowlie reportedly had been living a very comfortable prison life in La Paz, Mexico. He appealed to the Mexican Constitution to fight extradition and enjoyed such cordial relations with prison authorities that he was given generous four-day passes to go marlin fishing and pursue development interests in Cabo San Lucas. U.S. authorities had their 32-page indictment, with its charges of income tax evasion, distribution or intention to distribute 53,000 pounds of marijuana and more, but they did not have their man.

A court in Mazatlan, Mexico, paved the way last month with a ruling upholding extradition. On Monday afternoon, about 20 Mexican officials met with U.S. agents at a meeting so hastily assembled that Fowlie had no time to gather personal belongings before his extradition.

It’s interesting how quickly things can happen when two countries cooperate. Nearly five and one-half years elapsed from the time federal agents uncovered evidence of drug smuggling at the ranch to the time Fowlie returned for arraignment on Tuesday in federal court. In the United States alone, the case engaged a host of agencies. Progress came quickly in one chapter of the war on drugs only after the wheels of justice started turning in the courts and bureaucracies of two nations.