US wants to drop drug charges against millionaire
By DEVLIN BARRETT


Federal prosecutors cited problems with evidence Monday when they asked a judge to drop charges against a Chinese-Mexican businessman accused of importing large amounts of methamphetamines to the United States.

U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan lambasted prosecutors at a hearing on the request to dismiss the indictment against Zhenli Ye Gon, saying, "I'm not pleased at all with anything I've heard from the United States government."

When Ye Gon was arrested in 2007 in Wheaton, Md., authorities said they had seized more than $205 million in U.S. drug profits from his Mexico City mansion. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration called it the largest drug-related cash seizure in history.

Since then, one witness has recanted and another has refused to testify, prosecutor Paul Laymon told the judge.

Laymon insisted the "overwhelming reason" that they were asking for a dismissal was because of their relationship with the Mexican government, without elaborating in open court.

Even after a private discussion, the judge seemed unimpressed and ordered a further hearing on the case next week.

Ye Gon is in a federal lockup in Virginia, and he may remain there even after the U.S. charges are dismissed because of a pending extradition request from Mexico.

His lawyer, Eduardo Balarezo, said his client is "extremely happy" about the government's decision, though he noted that fighting extradition to Mexico remains an "uphill battle."

The judge, who has ordered an investigation into prosecutorial missteps in the investigation of former Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, said there were apparently similar problems in handling evidence in the Ye Gon case.

"This is very serious. This man has essentially been in solitary confinement," Sullivan said. "Someone in the Department of Justice better have a very good answer."

Officials with the Justice Department and the DEA declined to comment.

The judge said the prosecutors knew about the witnesses' backtracking months ago but only now decided to act on the information. He also said the government had apparently failed to turn over exculpatory evidence to the defense in a timely fashion.

It was the handling of that type of evidence that led Sullivan to throw out the conviction of Stevens and launch his own investigation into prosecutors' conduct.

The Justice Department is also conducting an inquiry in the Stevens case.

Ye Gon was charged in the United States with conspiracy to help manufacture methamphetamine for sale in the U.S. He is wanted in Mexico on organized crime, drug trafficking and weapons charges.

Mexican Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora said Ye Gon's cash 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 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's lawyer in Mexico, Rogelio de la Garza, said the move to dismiss U.S. charges "strengthens the defense position that there is no proof of the accusations against Mr. Zhenli."

De la Garza said that Mexico is continuing to press for the extradition because it wants to avoid repaying the money seized from Ye Gon's house.

"The bottom line is that the government wants to keep the money," De la Garza said, referring to piles of U.S. bills that the Mexican government has spent largely on building drug treatment centers.

Posted on Mon, Jun. 22, 2009 12:51 PM


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