Pubdate: Fri, 22 Sep 2000
Source: El Paso Times (TX)
Copyright: 2000 El Paso Times
Contact:  P.O.Box 20, El Paso, Texas 79999
Fax: (915) 546-6415
Website:  http://www.borderlandnews.com/
Author: Diana Washington Valdez

U.S. JUDGE RELEASES MAN WANTED IN MEXICO

A U.S. federal judge Thursday ordered the release of a Juarez lawyer after 
finding there was no evidence to support his extradition to Mexico on 
drug-related charges.

Lucio Cano Barraza was arrested May 26 at his West El Paso home on Mexican 
charges of drug smuggling, money laundering and organized criminal 
activity. The U.S. Marshals Service had alleged he was "a member of the 
criminal organization of the late Amado Carrillo Fuentes."

Cano, who denied the allegations, was held at the El Paso County Jail 
without bond until Thursday.

U.S. District Judge Richard Mesa ruled there was no evidence for the 
charges against Cano from a set of documents about 2 feet thick provided by 
the Mexican government.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jose Acosta, who represented the extradition 
request, said he was limited by the evidence provided by Mexico. "The 
evidence is what it is," he told the judge.

Cano's defense lawyers, Bernard Panetta and Mary Stillinger, said the 
charges were reduced to information about Cano's sale of a home in the 100 
block of De Alamo in Juarez's Club Campestre subdivision.

According to court records, Cano allegedly sold the home in 1996 to a 
bricklayer. Mexican officials claimed the sale was meant to conceal the 
property's true owner, but they never revealed who the true owner might be.

Mexican authorities also alleged that police found mugs with photos of the 
daughters of Vicente Carrillo Fuentes at the house two years later. 
Conflicting information indicated they were daughters of the late Amado 
Carrillo, Vicente's brother. Panetta said the mugs proved nothing.

Panetta noted a Mexican federal police report that said police saw Vicente 
Carrillo in 1998 and followed him to Cano's former house, but did not 
arrest him.

Vicente Carrillo was wanted in 1998 by Mexican officials on drug charges. 
U.S. officials recently indicted him in 10 Juarez deaths.
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