Mexico extradites drug cartel bosses to U.S

By Frank Jack Daniel

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico has extradited four drug kingpins to the United States, striking a blow to warring cartels that killed 2,000 people last year and have turned large areas of the country into lawless badlands.

Osiel Cardenas, who allegedly ran the Gulf cartel, was the most notorious of 11 drug traffickers flown to face trial in the United States on Friday. He was arrested and jailed after a shootout in 2003, but he continued to run drug operations from his prison cell.

Government video images showed Cardenas, who is indicted in Texas for threatening to kill an FBI agent, shuffling in leg chains onto a plane on Friday. He was guarded by a small group of heavily armed police in ski-masks and body armor.

Also extradited to face a cocaine distributing indictment in California was Hector "El Guero" Palma, a top associate of Mexico's most wanted man Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, who heads the powerful Sinaloa cartel and broke out of a top security prison hidden in a laundry van six years ago.

President Felipe Calderon took office in December and quickly sent troops and elite police units to tackle Mexico's main drug gangs and halt a gruesome surge in violence as rival cartels fight over smuggling routes and drug fields.

The mass extradition is the largest in Mexican history and could be a significant setback to the traffickers.

A total of 15 men were flown to the United States on Friday after their appeals against extradition were exhausted, a step Washington applauded.

"Never before has the United States received from Mexico such a large number of major drug defendants and other criminals for prosecution in this country," U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said on Saturday.

Gonzales praised the "bold stance" of Calderon's government "in targeting the drug-related violence and corruption that affects both our nations."

Mexican officials said the men may stand trial in the United States then return to complete Mexican sentences. Only then would they serve U.S. prison time.

FIERCE RETALIATION

Last year, former President Vicente Fox said he would extradite more drug lords, but predicted fierce retaliation from the cartels.

In the 1980s, a Colombian policy of extraditing cartel leaders to the United States caused a massive backlash, and the government eventually backed down after a campaign of bombings and assassinations killed dozens.

Drug kingpins held in Mexican prisons are often able to keep their cartels running from behind bars, making extradition a key tool in limiting their power.

"The Mexican state will not tolerate the violence and will respond with total strength against all criminal organizations that damage the interests of the nation," Calderon's office said in a statement on Friday.