$207 million cash seizure biggest in Mexican history

MEXICO CITY – A week ago, Zhenli Ye Gon was the toast of the Mexican media.

Speaking by telephone from a hiding place, he told a news conference that he would one day prove that senior officials of the government of President Felipe Calderon were responsible for the $207 million in illicit cash found in his Mexico City home.

Tuesday, Ye Gon was in a U.S. courtroom, having been captured hours earlier at an Asian restaurant in suburban Washington by U.S. agents who traced his cell phone. And Calderon was claiming victory in what was said to be the largest drug-cash seizure in the country’s history.

“Today, those who commit crimes should know that my government will not spare any resources or effort to hunt them down wherever they may be, inside or outside our national territory,” Calderon said at a speech at his alma mater, the Free School of Law.

Agents of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration arrested Ye Gon in Wheaton, Md., Monday night, some four months after Mexican police entered his Mexico City mansion on suspicion that he was running a methamphetamine production ring.

With its massive haul of cash, involving more than 2 tons of U.S. $100 bills, and allegations of official complicity, the case has come to symbolize the great wealth and power behind the international trade in illicit drugs.

A 44-year-old naturalized Mexican of Chinese descent, Ye Gon was arraigned Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Washington on drug-trafficking charges. Mexican authorities alerted their U.S. counterparts last month that they thought Ye Gon was in the United States.

Mexican authorities have said they will request Ye Gon’s extradition on a variety of drug-trafficking charges. If convicted in Mexico, he faces up to 73 years in prison.

U.S. authorities filed their own charges against Ye Gon last month.

Tuesday, U.S. officials released an eight-page affidavit by a DEA agent in Mexico City that offers new details on the vast scale of Ye Gon’s alleged operation. He is said to have imported enough “precursor chemicals” to produce methamphetamines with a street value of $724 million.

A note discovered at Ye Gon’s home refers to apparent assistance from corrupt Mexican customs officials, the affidavit said.

Ye Gon traveled often to Las Vegas to launder drug money and to gamble, the affidavit said. Between 2004 and 2007, records from Las Vegas hotels and casinos show Ye Gon had gambling losses of $125.9 million.

DEA agents conducted tests in April at Ye Gon’s Mexican pharmaceutical plant and discovered ephedrine, a stimulant and decongestant that can be used to manufacture methamphetamines.

Martin McMahon, a Washington lawyer representing Ye Gon, told the Associated Press that the charges against his client were “complete nonsense… . He has never had drugs, and he didn’t have any drugs on him when he was arrested.”