Mexican Drug Kingpin Arrested In Montgomery County

WUSA News 9
Last Updated: 7/24/2007 4:16:54 PM

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Mexico said Monday that U.S. authorities have arrested alleged methamphetamine trafficker Zhenli Ye Gon, whose mansion was the scene of what U.S. officials say was the world's largest seizure of drug cash.

Mexico's Attorney General's office said Ye Gon was detained in the Washington suburb of Rockville, Md.

He is wanted in Mexico on organized crime, drug trafficking and weapons charges. Mexican officials have requested his arrest for extradition.

In March, Mexican agents found more than $207- million in dollar, peso and euro bills in a mansion owned by Ye Gon in one of the capital's most exclusive neighborhoods.

Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora said the money was connected to one of the hemisphere's largest networks for trafficking pseudoephedrine, the main ingredient in methamphetamines. He said the ring had been operating since 2004, illegally importing the substance and selling it to a drug cartel that mixed it into the crystal form and imported it into the United States.

Ye Gon said the chemicals imported by his company, Unimed Pharm Chem de Mexico SA, were legitimate and intended for use in prescription drugs to be made at a factory he was building in
Toluca, just west of the Mexican capital.

Rogelio de la Garza, Ye Gon's lawyer in Mexico, told the Associated Press that his client would fight extradition. But he said he feared that U.S. authorities may simply deport him to Mexico to avoid a drawn out legal battle in a U.S. court.

"I don't know if his visa (for the United States) has run out or not," De la Garza said.

De la Garza said he will fight for Ye Gon's immediate freedom if he arrives in Mexico, arguing the money was earned legally and that Ye Gon was not found with any narcotics.

Ye Gon has also claimed that $150 million of the money belonged to Mexico's ruling party, and that he was forced to store it for party officials in his mansion under threat of death during the 2006 presidential race, which Felipe Calderon narrowly won.

Calderon has called the accusations "pure fiction."

Ye Gon's U.S. lawyer Martin F. McMahon had said he would ask that Ye Gon be given asylum in the United States and called for congressional hearings and a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration investigation into his client's claims.

"If he goes back to Mexico, he's going to be tortured ... we're convinced he faces death," McMahon said at a news conference in Washington.

U.S. anti-drug officials have praised Calderon's crackdown on Mexican traffickers since taking office. DEA chief Karen Tandy also praised Mexican agents following the March money seizure.

"This is like law enforcement hitting the ultimate jackpot. But luck had nothing to do with this windfall," Tandy said, calling it "the largest single drug-cash seizure the world has ever seen."

Concerned citizen groups multiply

Article published Jul 21, 2007

July 21, 2007

By Natasha Altamirano - Recent lobbying by grass-roots organizations to force tougher enforcement of immigration laws in Prince William and Loudoun counties is inspiring similar groups to form in other Virginia localities and even across the state line in Maryland.

Residents concerned about the negative effects of illegal aliens recently formed Help Save Virginia Beach, the fourth chapter of the umbrella group Help Save Virginia.

Aubrey Stokes, founder of the flagship group Help Save Herndon, said concerned residents have contacted him from Annandale, Culpeper and Henrico County.

"Citizens can see they can make a difference," Mr. Stokes said. "There's the old saying: Think globally, act locally."

Corey A. Stewart, chairman of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors, said the grass-roots efforts of Help Save Manassas were instrumental in drumming up support for a resolution county officials adopted July 10 that restricts public services for illegal aliens.

"The group played a very large role in the illegal immigration crackdown that the board is pursuing," said Mr. Stewart, at-large Republican. "They played a very helpful role in providing some of the research for the measures that the board took and they were also effective at generating public interest and turnout."

The resolution requires police officers to ask about immigration status in all arrests if there is probable cause to believe that a suspect has violated federal immigration law. The resolution also requires county staff to verify a person's legal status before providing certain public services.

Loudoun Supervisor Eugene Delgaudio thanked Help Save Loudoun and Help Save Herndon after the Loudoun board adopted a similar resolution on July 17.

Mr. Delgaudio, Sterling District Republican who introduced the resolution, said the groups held public forums for residents, candidates and elected officials.

"They've been working on these issues for years," he said. "They've done everything that a traditional, nonprofit educational group is supposed to do."

Help Save Herndon helped organize a chapter in Maryland, which has scheduled a protest today at a taxpayer-funded day-labor center in Derwood.

Help Save Maryland founder Brad Botwin said he wants to remind Montgomery County Executive Isiah "Ike" Leggett that some county residents still oppose the center, which opened in April and is one of four operated by CASA of Maryland.

"I think this is the best way to show Mr. Leggett that we're alive and kicking," Mr. Botwin said. "Someone is speaking out — that's the most important thing."

Mr. Botwin said he and other opponents of the day-labor center have received little feedback from county and state officials.

Montgomery County spokesman Patrick Lacefield said Mr. Leggett, a Democrat, and county officials always have been open to discussions with residents on a variety of issues.

"The problem they have is basically we don't agree with them — it's not that we don't talk to them or listen to them," Mr. Lacefield said.

The center generated more than 700 jobs last month. There have been no reports of negative incidents involving the workers, he said, but in early May a deliberately set fire slightly damaged the trailer that houses the center.

Montgomery County's population increased from 873,341 in 2000 to 932,131 in 2006, U.S. Census Bureau figures show. The Hispanic population increased from about 11.5 percent to 13.6 percent in the same period.

Prince William County's population increased from 281,813 in 2000 to 357,503 in 2006, according to census figures. The Hispanic population nearly doubled during that period, from about 9.7 percent to 18 percent.

In Loudoun County, the population increased from 169,599 in 2000 to 268,817 in 2006. The Hispanic population increased from about 5.9 percent in 2000 to 9.3 percent in 2006, according to census data.

Help Save Herndon successfully lobbied for town police to become the first locality in the region to receive immigration-enforcement training under an agreement with the Department of Homeland Security. Officers completed training last month.

Local action is motivated in part by frustration with federal inaction on immigration reform and by the desire to make a difference in the local community, Mr. Stokes said.

"If you're taking a bath and the tub starts to overflow, what are you going to do first: Turn off the water or grab a mop?" he asked. "Local communities — we're the mop. If local communities cannot affect change at the border, which we cannot, most definitely we can start dealing with the consequences."

Day-Laborer Center Draws Protest

Group Against Illegal Immigration Wants County to Stop Funding Facility

By Ernesto Londoño
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, July 22, 2007; C04



A group opposed to illegal immigration held a two-hour protest yesterday in front of a day-laborer center in Montgomery County, calling on elected officials to stop funding the center that the county set up near Gaithersburg.

"Other counties are pushing legislation to stop this," Brad Botwin, one of the organizers, said at the protest yesterday morning. "We're becoming a sanctuary."

Botwin, a federal employee who started Help Save Maryland last year to advocate cutting benefits for illegal immigrants, said he has been hearing from more people who have joined his cause.

"You're seeing PTA members, government workers saying enough is enough," Botwin said. "I'm getting e-mails from across the county, across the state."

Gaithersburg officials, faced with considerable political resistance, had rejected several sites for a center where day laborers could gather to meet employers. In April, the county set up the site just outside the city limits.

One of the protesters who attended yesterday's rally, Gretta Patten, 41, of Rockville used her dachshund, Schroeder, in what she said was her debut as an activist against illegal immigration. The pet, which scurried around protesters who were waving flags and signs looking for spots of shadow, wore two signs fastened to a vest.

One said: "I've got a bone to pick with Ike," referring to County Executive Isiah Leggett (D), who supports the day-laborer center and has said Montgomery will not follow in the footsteps of Prince William and Loudoun counties, where ordinances against illegal immigration have been enacted recently. The dog's other sign said: "This hotdog's got a beef with illegal immigration."

Patten, 41, said her main gripe is about the county's financial support for groups such as Casa de Maryland, an immigrant advocacy group that operates the day-laborer center.

"It's knowing my tax dollars go to people who are breaking the law," she said.

The protest drew members of the Minutemen, a national group founded in Arizona to patrol the U.S.-Mexico border and limit immigration. While the group of about 20 protesters waved to passing motorists near the Shady Grove Metro station, day laborers planted flowers on an unkempt patch of land in front of the center, which operates in a trailer.

Across the street, a slightly larger group of counter-protesters challenged and at times taunted Botwin's group.

"Minutemen, KKK, racist bigots, go away!" the immigrant activists yelled.

Gustavo Torres, executive director of Casa de Maryland, said the anti-illegal immigration protesters represent the view of a "small minority." He said that the center has been a success and that he thinks most people in the county support it and acknowledge the need for it.

"Any organization doing the type of work we do is going to become a target," he said.

Sara Pellecer, an immigrant from Guatemala who was with the day laborers yesterday, said she and other immigrants worry about the anti-immigrant sentiment that appears to be spreading in the region, especially in the wake of the new ordinances in Virginia.

"The measures aren't wise," she said. "They push people toward poverty and despair."