US & World

MEXICO CITY (AP) ― Mexico sent 10 alleged drug smugglers to the United States on Wednesday, capping an already record year for extraditions between the two countries.

Several were high-ranking members of Mexico's most powerful drug gangs, including the Gulf and Tijuana-based Arellano-Felix cartels. The suspects will face charges in California, Texas, Florida and Georgia, Mexico's Attorney General's office said in a news release.

U.S. Ambassador Tony Garza praised the action as another example of President Felipe Calderon's determination to go after Mexico's drug cartels. Since taking office in 2006, Calderon has made it a priority to extradite drug suspects, who previously would operate from their Mexican jail cells.

"With this decision President Calderon and his national security team underscore again Mexico's determination to bring cartels operating in its territory to their knees," Garza said in a statement.

Wednesday's group brings the number of suspects extradited to the United States to 95 this year, 12 more than in 2007.

Those extradited Wednesday included Jesus "Chuy" Labra Aviles, the former top financial leader for the Arellano-Felix gang who was arrested in 2000 in Tijuana, and Armando Martinez Duarte, a former federal police official who also worked as the chief of security for the Arellano-Felix gang, protecting its members from police raids.

Aviles and Martinez are wanted in California for drug trafficking, money laundering and racketeering, Garza said.

In Texas, Juan Carlos de la Cruz Reyna, a former state police officer who allegedly became a top operative of the Gulf Cartel, will face charges of threatening to kill U.S. federal agents cooperating with Mexican authorities.

In Georgia, Jose Manuel Barrientos Rodriguez, who was allegedly in charge of distributing drugs for the Gulf Cartel in the Atlanta area, is wanted for trafficking cocaine and assaulting a federal officer, Garza said.

All but one of the suspects are Mexican citizens. Juan Diego Espinosa Ramirez, a Colombian citizen, is wanted in Florida on federal drug trafficking charges related to large cocaine shipments from Colombia to the United States.

The alleged members of the Arellano-Felix cartel face maximum sentences of life in federal prison and minimum sentences between 10 and 20 years, said Laura Duffy, a federal prosecutor in San Diego.

U.S. Justice Department spokesman Ian McCaleb said none of the 10 will face the death penalty.

In one of his first actions as president, Calderon extradited Gulf Cartel leader Osiel Cardenas to Texas as he kicked off his national campaign against organized crime.

Calderon has sent more than 40,000 troops across Mexico to confront traffickers, who have responded fiercely. Drug slayings have soared to more than 5,300 this year, twice the number in 2007, according to Mexico's Attorney General's office.

The Defense Department said this week that Mexican soldiers captured Alberto Espinoza Barron, an alleged high-ranking member of a drug gang known as "The Family," in the Pacific coast state of Michoacan.

A Defense statement alleges Espinoza was in charge of U.S.-bound cocaine shipments arriving at the state's Lazaro Cardenas port from South America. He is also accused of bribing police, extorting businesses and ordering kidnappings and killings.

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