Pubdate: Sat, 22 Dec 2001 Source: New York Times (NY) Copyright: 2001 The New York Times Company Contact: http://www.nytimes.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298 Author: Tim Weiner SUSPECT IN VAST DRUG RING HELD IN MEXICO May Be Sent to U.S. MEXICO CITY, Dec. 21 -- A man suspected of being one of Mexico's biggest drug traffickers is under arrest and facing extradition to the United States after a decade of thumbing his nose at law enforcement authorities, Mexican officials said today. The suspect, Miguel Caro Quintero, has been identified by the authorities for years as the head of one of the world's biggest drug cartels. He succeeded his brother, Rafael Caro Quintero, who has been imprisoned in Mexico since 1985 for the murder of a United States Drug Enforcement Administration agent, Enrique Camarena Salazar. The United States says Miguel Caro Quintero heads the Sonora cartel, one of Mexico's oldest and best-established drug syndicates. The cartel ships tons of Colombian cocaine and other drugs from the Mexican state of Sonora over the border into California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, and across the United States, the American authorities say. Mr. Caro Quintero faces four federal drug- and money-laundering indictments in Arizona and Colorado, although none in Mexico. He has lived and worked for years without apparent fear of the law, traveling freely and conducting his business, and even calling a radio station near Hermosillo, Mexico, to scoff on the air at American drug enforcement authorities. But he was arrested Thursday in Los Mochis, in Sinaloa State, while driving on a city street, and shipped to a maximum-security prison in Mexico City. His arrest was the latest sign of increased cooperation and trust between the Mexican and American authorities, which American drug enforcement agents say has grown dramatically in the past year under President Vicente Fox. The American authorities say Mr. Caro Quintero has operated with near total impunity since 1992, when he used bribery and threats of violence to compel a Mexican judge to drop criminal charges pending against him. In 1999, Mexico's Supreme Court ruled that he could be extradited to the United States to face the federal indictments against him there, a decision affirmed by a broader ruling on extradition by the court last year. The Caro Quintero organization operates from a network of ranches in the northern border state of Sonora, receiving Colombian cocaine and manufacturing methamphetamine, or speed, and shipping it into the United States. Despite its notoriety, which soared with the 1985 murder of Mr. Camarena, the organization has long enjoyed protection from prosecution because of the corruption of local and federal authorities. In 1997, Thomas A. Constantine, then the chief of the United States Drug Enforcement Administration, made special note of Mr. Caro Quintero. "In an act of astonishing arrogance, he called a radio station in Hermosillo, Mexico, last May stating that he was bothered by statements I had made," Mr. Constantine testified before the United States Congress. Mr. Caro Quintero "indicated that he was an innocent rancher and charges made against him by D.E.A. were untrue," Mr. Constantine said. "He then had the audacity to give his address and invite law enforcement officials from Mexico and the United States to visit him -- yet he remains at large." - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake