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Mexico questions U.S. port security
More than 19 tons of a chemical for meth stopped in California.
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published July 27, 2007
MEXICO CITY - Chinese and U.S. authorities are investigating whether a breakdown in security at their ports allowed a shipment reportedly carrying more than 19 tons of a chemical intended for methamphetamine cartels to reach Mexico, the Mexican attorney general said Thursday. The shipment led to what has been touted as the world's largest seizure of drug money and the arrest of Chinese-Mexican businessman Zhenli Ye Gon, who is accused in the United States and Mexico of supplying pseudoephedrine to Mexican cartels who then used the drug to make methamphetamines. In March, authorities found more than $205-million inside Ye Gon's Mexico City mansion. Ye Gon was arrested Monday by U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents in a suburban Washington restaurant. On Thursday, a federal grand jury indicted Ye Gon on charges he conspired to help in the production of methamphetamines destined for the United States. He could face up to life in prison if convicted, U.S. Justice Department spokeswoman Jaclyn Lesch said. Mexican Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora said Thursday that investigators want to know how the shipment arrived in Mexico after passing through Chinese and U.S. ports. Mexican agents intercepted a ship from China last year that carried more than 19 tons of a chemical that can be easily be converted into pseudoephedrine, all of it illegally imported by Ye Gon, Medina Mora said. The shipment left Hong Kong and passed through the U.S. port of Long Beach, Calif., and was seized at the Mexican port of Lazaro Cardenas. Jose Luis Santiago Vasconcelos, assistant attorney general, also questioned how Ye Gon - who lost more than $125-million in Las Vegas since 2004 - did not raises U.S. suspicions. "Tell me, how could he have broken all the anti-money laundering measures?" he asked on W Radio.
[Last modified July 27, 2007, 01:54:00]
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