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Around the World

Mexican case key in Drug War

Luis Amezcua was checking out a used Chrysler Shadow in Guadalajara when Mexican anti-drug agents pounced. The next morning, police swooped down on his brother, Jesus, as he consulted a Cuban Santeria guru in Mexico City.

The arrests of the Amezcuas were hailed as Mexico's biggest anti-drug victory in years, a crushing blow to the alleged godfathers of the booming U.S. market for methamphetamines.

But nine months later, the Amezcua case has turned into a dance with defeat for the Mexican government. The brothers have been cleared of charges in Mexico and remain in custody only because of a U.S. request to try them in San Diego. But whether they will ever face a California judge is unclear. Mexican authorities have agreed to extradite them, but the brothers' lawyer has appealed and Mexican judges in the past have upheld challenges in similar cases.

The Amezcua case has emerged as a key issue in President Clinton's annual evaluation, which is expected today, of other nations' cooperation in fighting drugs. If Mexico fails the evaluation, it could face economic sanctions.

With methamphetamine abuse wreaking havoc from California to Iowa, many U.S. legislators view the Amezcuas' fate as a test of Mexico's will to fight drug gangs.

"We consider it one of our highest cases," said John Russell, a U.S. Justice Department spokesperson. "We consider them the meth kings of this hemisphere."

According to their lawyer, Jesus and Luis Amezcua were young Mexicans of modest means who moved to Southern California, doing construction and other odd jobs, before returning to the Mexican city of Colima several years ago to become ranchers. "My clients have the economic capacity of any working citizen," said the lawyer, Everardo Rojas, who insists that they are innocent.

In public documents and interviews, however, U.S. law enforcement officials paint a far more chilling picture. They say the Amezcuas took advantage of their U.S. stay to set up a cocaine ring in the late 1980s, one of many run by low-level Mexican trafficking groups.

Then, according to the officials, came the brainstorm that catapulted the brothers to fame.

The officials say the Amezcuas turned to methamphetamine, a highly addictive and cheap synthetic drug that was catching on in the western United States. Previously, illegal supplies of the drug had been made mainly by U.S. motorcycle gangs for their own use. But by 1990, officials say, even those gangs were buying Mexican-produced methamphetamine.

"That's what set (the Amezcuas) apart. They were able to find a market in methamphetamine and were able to maintain that market," said a U.S. official, one of several who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The brothers started off hawking one-pound parcels in Los Angeles and San Diego, officials say. But as the drug's popularity took off, their operations mushroomed, according to the officials.

They crafted a sophisticated international network for receiving ephedrine, the base ingredient of methamphetamine, officials say. While keeping a low profile, the brothers allegedly bought the chemical in Germany, China and India and sent it to other traffickers or to secret methamphetamine "super labs" in Mexico and the United States.

By 1996, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration had seized more than 5 tons of ephedrine that it traced to the Amezcuas. And the brothers' names seemed to be turning up all over. Authorities identified methamphetamine traffickers linked to them in Texas, Georgia, Oklahoma, Iowa, Arkansas, North Carolina and California, which had become the U.S. capital of methamphetamine production.

"They were the forerunners of the meth trade," said one U.S. official.

But a four-year investigation finally led authorities to the brothers. In June, an elite Mexican anti-drug unit working with U.S. assistance tracked down Luis Amezcua in the central Mexican city of Guadalajara and nabbed him as he examined a used car, according to Mexican officials. Agents meanwhile were tailing Jesus in Mexico City, arresting him at a hotel after he returned from a market that sells voodoo and religious items.

Mexican and U.S. anti-drug agents were jubilant.

"It's the first important case in Mexico where we applied a system of intelligence that allowed us to dismember a (drug) organization," said a senior Mexican official who requested anonymity.

But a Mexican judge threw out an organized-crime charge against the brothers, ruling that there was insufficient evidence. A money-laundering charge was dropped because the statute of limitations had expired.

That left only the San Diego drug-trafficking indictment, a federal charge that could result in life sentences.

U.S. officials consider extradition a powerful weapon against drug traffickers, a way to ensure that they can't bribe their way out of punishment in countries with weaker legal systems.

But extradition is a minefield in Mexico, where nationalist passions run strong - especially when it comes to turning over citizens to the United States. The Mexican government only started extraditing its nationals in 1996.

"We firmly believe these extraditions are absolutely important," said Eduardo Ibarrola, a deputy Mexican attorney general. But, he noted, Mexican policy for decades had barred sending nationals to face foreign courts. "A lot of judges and magistrates are still thinking that way," he said.

Mexico's Foreign Relations Ministry quietly approved the extradition of Jesus Amezcua, 33, in December and gave the green light for the extradition of Luis Amezcua, 35, on Feb. 18. They were the first alleged Mexican cartel leaders whom the government here had agreed to extradite.

But the Amezcuas stand a good chance of winning their appeal. In two other high-profile cases, Mexican federal judges recently ruled that national law prohibited sending two alleged Mexican mid-level traffickers to face U.S. charges. The government had argued that it could do so under a clause allowing extradition in exceptional cases.

Mexican officials express fear that judges are being bribed, or intimidated by the possibility of a Colombia-style assassination campaign against magistrates who grant extradition.

Mexican prosecutors are now gearing up for a fight, hoping to take the Amezcua case to the nation's Supreme Court to set a precedent on extradition.

If judges don't allow the extradition, they say, the brothers will be tried under a law allowing Mexicans to face prosecution at home for crimes committed abroad.

But Rojas, the Amezcuas' lawyer, insists that U.S. drug evidence will not be admissible in a Mexican court. No major trafficker has been convicted yet under the law permitting trial for foreign crimes.

Failure to extradite teen leads to questions

The reluctant tones of the judges' 3-2 decision keeping Samuel Sheinbein from returning to Maryland to stand trial reflected wider embarrassment in Israel over a blanket ban on extraditing Jews - a ban many now believe to be outdated.

Justice Theodor Orr, writing for the majority, said the law contradicts extradition treaties Israel has signed - but that as long as the law was on the books, he had to uphold it.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who promised U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright last year that he would fully cooperate in extradition efforts, said he was disappointed.

"We did want to see extradition,"Netanyahu told reporters in Tel Aviv. "We are a country of law. In a country of law, the law is interpreted by the Supreme Court."

Netanyahu promised that Sheinbein would be tried to the full extent of Israeli law.

"Justice will be done,"he said.

Even Sheinbein's attorney David Libai - a former Justice Minister who has said his client will plead guilty when he appears before an Israeli court - said the law needed changing.

"We cannot allow a situation where there's such a blatant contradiction between a treaty with the United States ... and Israeli law,"he said.

Maryland authorities want Sheinbein for the killing of Alfred Tello Jr., in Montgomery County, Md., in September 1997.

Sheinbein, who fled to Israel two days after Tello's dismembered and burned body was discovered in a Maryland garage, exploited a 1978 law that bars the extradition of Israeli citizens to other countries.

The law was passed at the urging of then-Prime Minister Menachem Begin, who felt that Jews should not be handed over to gentiles for judgment.

U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno said she was "disappointed"at yesterday's ruling, but expected to work with Israel in successfully prosecuting Sheinbein.

"We much prefer that the case be tried where the crime was committed,"Reno said. "But if it has to be tried in another country, we want to make sure that the processes are in place that will permit it to happen, so that we see justice done regardless."

Montgomery County State's Attorney Douglas Gansler also pledged to work with Israel to try Sheinbein.

"To say we're deeply disappointed in this ruling is an understatement,"he said. "There is no further recourse. There are no more appeals. We do want to see justice is achieved."

Eliette Ramos, Tello's mother, said she was disappointed in the Israeli government and judiciary system.

"He and his family are laughing at both Israel and the United States, because they manipulated both countries,"she said.

Sheinbein was to return to court within five days to face indictment, a Justice Ministry statement said. He faces a life sentence in Israel, as he did in Maryland, where authorities pledged not to seek a death sentence.

But a life sentence in Israel rarely translates into longer than 18 years and prisoners enjoy conveniences - including holiday furloughs - rarely granted their U.S. counterparts.

Israeli officials clearly were nervous about U.S. reaction to the decision.

"What has to be remembered, and we will say it to the United States, is that justice will be done,"said Irit Kahn, a senior Justice Ministry official who had argued in favor of extradition.

Robert Livingston, a Louisiana Republican who chairs the U.S. House Appropriations Committee, last year threatened to block U.S. aid to Israel if Sheinbein was not extradited.

Sheinbein had little contact with Israel prior to his flight - he claimed Israeli citizenship through his father, Sol, a Washington patent lawyer who was born in pre-state Israel.

The parliament's Law Committee is considering a bill that would amend the law barring extradition.

Sheinbein's father has said he wanted his son tried in Israel because he feared for his safety in a U.S. prison. Sheinbein's alleged accomplice, Aaron Needle, committed suicide in a U.S. jail.

A lower court had ruled last year that even though Sheinbein could technically claim citizenship, he could be returned to the United States because he had no real affinity to Israel.

Aharon Barak, the chief justice, argued in favor of extradition.

"How can one imagine that a foreign citizen, whose affinity is with a foreign country, can argue before Israeli courts that he does not trust the laws of his country and its jurisprudence?"Barak wrote.

02-26-99