Tech on Tec

Continuing his war on drugs, Mexican President Felipe Calderon took the inital move on June 21^st to send yet another person accused of drug-trafficking into the hands of the U.S. government. The accused man, Mario Villanueva Madrid, is the former governor of Quintana Roo, a state located on the southern tip of Mexico.  He is currently wanted on charges of racketeering, trafficking, and money laundering in New York City.Villanueva began his governorship in 1993 as a member of the PRI, and he is accused of accepting millions of dollars from the Juarez cartel in return for allowing them to bring in 200 tons of cocaine from South America during that time.  Villanueva is also being accused of ordering the state police to protect the traffickers while they temporarily held the drugs in Cancun until they were able to ship the cocaine to the U.S.  Villanueva went underground in 1999 before his term ended, sacrificing his exemption from prosecution. It was then that the federal police were able to capture Villanueva in 2001 and convict him on charges of money-laundering.  He was held captive in a maximum security prison until early in the morning on June 21^st, when he was released from that Mexico City prison.  However, immediately upon his release, several masked federal agents seized him, and following the orders of President Calderon and the U.S., he currently is being detained until his extradition hearing.  If a Mexican judge approves of the extradition, Villanueva will then be put on trial in New York, making him the highest-ranking former Mexican elected official to be on trial in the U.S. for drug-related charges. President Calderon has sent 21 people accused of being members of the drug trade to the U.S. just this year.  He even sent over 11 high-ranking drug trafficking members in one night. By making moves to turn Villanueva over to the U.S., President Calderon boosts his relations with the U.S.  His tough stance on drugs alters the U.S.’s image of Mexico as a weak enforcer to one where it emphatically has been cracking down on the drug trade.