Chemical seized in Mexico got Chinese, U.S. ports’ OK
MEXICO CITY – Chinese and U.S. authorities are investigating whether a breakdown in security at their ports allowed an illegal shipment reportedly carrying more than 19 tons of a chemical intended for methamphetamine cartels to reach Mexico, the Mexican attorney general said Thursday.
The shipment led to what has been touted as the world’s largest seizure of drug money and the arrest of Chinese-Mexican businessman Zhenli Ye Gon, who is accused in the United States and Mexico of supplying pseudoephedrine to Mexican cartels who then used the drug to make methamphetamine.
In March, authorities found more than $205 million hidden inside Ye Gon’s Mexico City mansion.
Ye Gon was arrested Monday by U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents in a suburban Washington restaurant.
On Thursday, a federal grand jury indicted Ye Gon on charges he conspired to help in the production of methamphetamine destined for the United States. He could face up to life in prison if convicted, U.S. Justice Department spokeswoman Jaclyn Lesch said.
Mexican Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora told a news conference Thursday that investigators want to know how the shipment arrived in Mexico with false paperwork after passing through Chinese and U.S. ports.
Mexican agents intercepted a ship from China last year that carried more than 19 tons of a proprietary chemical that can be easily be converted into pseudoephedrine, all of it illegally imported by Ye Gon, Medina Mora said. The shipment left Hong Kong and passed through the U.S. port of Long Beach, Calif., and was seized at the Mexican port of Lazaro Cardenas.
“There was evidently a falsification of documents that took place at some moment after the product left Chinese territory,” Medina Mora said.
Jose Luis Santiago Vasconcelos, assistant attorney general, also questioned how Ye Gon – who lost more than $125 million gambling in Las Vegas since 2004 – did not raises suspicions by U.S. authorities.
“Tell me, how could he have broken all the anti-money laundering measures?” he told W Radio in an interview Wednesday.
Mike Flemming, spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, had no immediate comment on Thursday. Chinese officials could not immediately be reached.
Medina Mora said the seized chemicals were manufactured by a Hong Kong-based pharmaceutical company, which he said allegedly offered to help Ye Gon convert it into pseudoephedrine.
But import documents presented with the shipment when it arrived in Mexico listed a nonexistent firm and described the contents as another substance.
Ye Gon has said the chemicals imported by his company, Unimed Pharm Chem de Mexico SA, were legitimate and intended for cold medicines. Ye Gon’s lawyers said he has nothing to do with illegal drugs.