Judge to Consider Fowlie Request : Court: She said she will take up to 10 days to decide whether to dismiss some of the 26 felony counts against the accused marijuana smuggler.

A federal judge Tuesday took under submission a request to dismiss some charges against a drug-smuggling defendant who claims he is being improperly prosecuted on counts that were never intended to be part of his extradition from Mexico.

After a day of hearings, U.S. District Judge Alicemarie H. Stotler said she would take up to 10 days to rule on a defense request to dismiss at least nine of 26 felony counts against suspect Daniel James Fowlie.

Fowlie’s attorneys, G. David Haigh and James Brustman, say the charges, which include operating a continuing criminal enterprise and making illegal currency transfers, have no equivalent in Mexican law and that, therefore, Fowlie could not be extradited to face those charges in the United States.

They presented testimony from Andres Flores Hernandez, a lawyer and former federal district judge in Mexico, who said that Fowlie’s extradition ruling related only to the drug-smuggling charges that have equivalents in Mexican law.

Hernandez also called the Mexican extradition ruling flawed because the judges did not do an in-depth analysis of all the charges included in the U.S. extradition request.

Assistant U.S. Atty Elana S. Artson, the prosecutor, argued that Mexico placed no limitations on the case and that Mexican courts and government officials had approved Fowlie’s return to face all counts. Artson said that if Fowlie is unhappy with the Mexican decision, the only way he can challenge it is in a Mexican court.

“We’re not concerned with what they should have done, but with what they consented to,” Artson said. “If they consented, he has no complaint in this court. The only relief is in Mexico.”

U.S. authorities suspect that from 1982 to 1986, Fowlie, 57, operated one of the largest marijuana smuggling operations in the United States using warehouses in Orange County and Rancho del Rio, a 213-acre property on the Orange County-Riverside County line. After three years fighting extradition from Mexico, Fowlie was returned to Orange County in July.