Extradition Case Shows Violence of Drug War

SAN DIEGO —  The extradition case against two alleged members of Mexico’s fastest-growing drug cartel paints a violent portrait of the scramble to control the lucrative cross-border narcotics trade.

Emilio Valdez Mainero and Alfredo Hodoyan were ordered back to their country to face charges of murder and criminal association, although their attorneys contend that witnesses were tortured into fingering them by Mexico’s disgraced former drug czar.

Hodoyan’s mother, Cristina Hodoyan de Palacios, said she felt “incredulity” upon hearing Friday’s announcement on the late-night news that U.S. Magistrate Anthony Battaglia had decided to extradite the pair.

“I can’t believe it,” she said from her home in Tijuana on Saturday morning. “The Mexican government has told lies and presented a false case against my son.”

She said the family will appeal the decision.

The men were linked to the Arellano Felix brothers’ drug organization, which controls the lucrative drug corridor from Baja California into the United States. One of the gang’s leaders, Ramon Arellano Felix, is on the FBI’s most wanted list.

Valdez, 32, is charged with the April 1996 assassination of Bebe Gallardo, an aspiring boxer who was killed at a Holiday Inn in Mexico. Valdez, a godfather of one of the Arellano Felixes’ children, was arrested in September in the San Diego suburb of Coronado.

Alfredo Hodoyan was with him at the time of the arrest, but U.S. officials did not have an extradition request for him. He was arrested for investigation of possessing an illegal AK-47 assault rifle and because narcotics allegedly were found in his apartment.

He eventually became the subject of an extradition request in connection with the murder of Ernesto Ibarra Santes.

During his 28 days as Tijuana’s federal police commander, Ibarra had pledged to crush the Arellano Felix criminal empire.

Ibarra was slain as his taxi pulled away from the Mexico City airport. The Sept. 14, 1996, hit also killed Ibarra’s bodyguards and the taxi driver.

Mexico’s then-attorney general said Ibarra’s death was the inevitable result of his attempt to free Baja California from the Arellano Felixes’ death grip.

According to their defense attorney, Michael Pancer, incriminating witness statements against Valdez and Hodoyan were the result of a lengthy interrogation supervised by Mexico’s former drug czar, Army Gen. Jesus Gutierrez Rebollo.