DRUGS 28
1-3gd Assets seized
Part of the currency seized during the raid
The fortune, reportedly found by the police on March 15, 2007 at his residence at Lomas
de Chapultepec in Mexico City included the following:
207 million U.S. dollars
18 million Mexican pesos
200,000 euros
113,000 Hong Kong dollars
11 centenarios (Mexican gold bullion coins made
of 1.20565 oz t (37.5 g) of pure gold)
A great amount of jewels, of unknown value
Confiscated along with the money were also:
Two Mexican-style dwellings of approximately 20 million pesos
A war chest of automatic guns
1 lab in construction of unknown value
7 vehicles
Nine persons were arrested, four of them of Asian origin.
Defense lawyers in Mr. Ye Gon’s U.S. criminal case asked to view all of these seized materials,
but they were never produced in the U.S. by Mexican officials. U.S. prosecutors reported that the
seized cash had not been retained by Mexican officials as evidence, but instead had been
counted and deposited into bank accounts. Many seized contents of Mr. Ye Gon’s home, located
in Mexico City’s suburb of Lomas de Chapultepec, were subsequently auctioned off by Mexican
officials.
The police raid of Mr. Ye Gon’s home and businesses in Mexico, on March 15, 2007, took place
one day after a high-level meeting occurred between U.S. President George W. Bush and Mexican
President Felipe Calderon in the Mexican city of Mérida on March 14, 2007, at which both
Presidents announced plans to expand bilateral and regional counter-narcotics and security
cooperation. Later, on October 22, 2007, the U.S. and Mexico jointly announced their “Merida
Initiative,” named after this city where both Presidents had met. The Mérida Initiative involved a
multi-year plan in which the U.S. would provide significant financial assistance to the Mexican
government, plus smaller amounts to other Latin American countries, to help them combat drug
trafficking and other organizations. Pursuant to this $1.1 billion announced Mérida Initiative, the
Bush Administration eventually requested $500 million for Mexico in supplemental FY2008
appropriations, plus another $450 million for Mexico in its FY2009 budget request.
Two Mexican Federal agents who were involved in the arrests at the Zhenli Ye Gon mansion were
found dead in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero, as reported on August 2, 2007. Mr. Ye Gon
was not among the persons who had been arrested by these agents several months before, however,
and no charges have ever been filed suggesting any link whatsoever between their deaths and
Mr. Ye Gon.
Mr. Ye Gon’s name has also been referenced in connection with subsequent money laundering
investigations, including one involving Las Vegas Sands. Sands attorneys have reportedly defended
against these allegations by noting how Sands had conducted due diligence on Mr. Ye Gon, and
concluded that his funds sent to the casino were not laundered, after sending a private investigator
and company employee down to Mexico to confirm that Mr. Ye Gon was a legitimate businessman.
1-3ge Origins of the money
According to the Mexican authorities, Ye Gon’s money is the product of drug-trafficking activities.
However Ye Gon asserts that he was forced by Javier Lozano Alarcón, Mexican Secretary of Labor,
to keep it at his home, and that this money would be used during Felipe Calderón’s presidential
campaign in 2006. Felipe Calderon denied connection with the money and said it was invention by
Ye Gon to avoid prosecution. An expert report filed in Mr. Ye Gon’s habeas corpus case, authored
by Georgetown University Professor of Latin American Studies Mark Chernick, has deemed this
explanation plausible, given Latin America’s electoral history of “clientelism” run by party bosses,
and the unusually close nature of Mexico’s 2006 Presidential elections.
1-3gf In pop culture
A poll by the daily newspaper Diario Reforma found that most Mexicans either buy Ye Gon’s story
that he was framed by government officials or believe neither side. Bumper stickers reading
“I believe the Chinaman” are for sale.
1-4 Reviewed
We have discussed the most important names, and now we know how the media and the world think
about these people, but also act as to keep these people in the foreground.
The reason I write this, is because these big drug lords are not the absolute top of the whole.
From years rooting in this world, one soon discovers that there are global interests behind the drugs
and that even many countries have run their economies through the drugs and are depended on the drugs.
The names we can read so far are names of those who nicely make use of these narcotics trade.
It is notable that one is tolerated, and the other one constantly met opposition. Now many think, and so
it is also depicted, that it is about the tolerance between the various cartels. But all the cartels are under
one power which states that what should and should not happen.
Now we are going in more detail in this book. I first want to continue with drugs, how they always used it
and how they deal with it now.
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