Webloggin » “Alleged” Drug Lord Zhenli Ye Gon Arrested in Maryland

Zhenli Ye Gon was arrested in Rockville, MD in connection with one of the largest pseudoephedrine drug rings in the “Western Hemisphere”. While Gon’s official status is “alleged” he was caught with an unexplained $207 million tucked away at his Mexico City residence.

MEXICO CITY - U.S. federal agents have arrested a Mexico City businessman wanted in connection with one of the Western Hemisphere’s largest trafficking rings for the main chemical ingredient in methamphetamine.

Zhenli Ye Gon was arrested in a Maryland restaurant Monday evening, four months after police discovered $207 million at his Mexico City mansion in what U.S. officials have called the world’s biggest seizure of drug cash.

Mexican Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora called the arrest “magnificent news” and said Mexican officials had 60 days to file their legal arguments for Ye Gon’s extradition. The Chinese-Mexican fugitive is wanted on organized crime, drug trafficking and weapons charges.

DEA spokesman Garrison Courtney said Ye Gon was arrested on drug smuggling and money laundering charges, adding that he was tracked down by agents and did not turn himself in.

Medina Mora said the cash seized at Ye Gon’s home 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 into the United States.

As of July 2005, a law was passed that pseudoephedrine could only be sold behind pharmacy counters. I remember this specifically because my “John Hancock” had to be logged when I purchased some allergy medication. So once again we are faced with a silly government restriction that forces the legal citizen to jump through hoops while the “alleged” criminals go the other route and get their supplies on the black market. This is the same mentality that advocates stupid gun laws as if the criminals are getting their weapons in gun shops.

The only thing the government accomplishes when it imposes such restrictions is to create millionaire organized crime figures. I’m not quite sure how this case will turn out but Gon claims to have connections to Mexico’s ruling party (surprise, I think not) and his lawyer is claiming that the chemicals are legitimate, FOR USE IN MEXICO.

Medina Mora said the cash seized at Ye Gon’s home 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 into the United States.

Ye Gon has 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.

Ye Gon 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.-based lawyer, Ning Ye, denounced the “lousy evidence made up by Mexican government” and said Ye Gon would apply for political asylum in the United States.

Who really knows which mix of facts and excuses are truths. I would imagine that the U.S. government tracks these chemicals if in fact they are here legally but nothing is guaranteed anymore.

The one thing we do know is that the United States sits along the border of a country that bears a good deal of responsibility for illegal activities that occur in the United States. Isn’t it time that American politicians stop pandering to Mexico and start getting serious about managing this border?