September 29, 2007 Saturday
Plane crash
shines light on drug trade;
A business jet that crashed Monday in
Mexico
was carrying 4 tons of
cocaine
and belonged to
Mexico's
most notorious drug trafficker.
BYLINE: JAY ROOT AND KEVIN G. HALL,
SECTION: A; Pg. 5
LENGTH: 301 words
The 4 tons of cocaine found aboard a U.S.-registered business jet that crashed in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula on Monday belonged to Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, this country's most notorious drug trafficker, Mexican authorities said Friday.
The business jet that was transporting the dope to Mexico from Colombia was purchased just a week before the crash by a U.S. pilot with a history of legal and financial problems in Florida, interviews and official records indicate, but whether the pilot still owned the plane at the time of its crash is unknown.
The complex sale of the Gulfstream II jet and its end in the Mexican jungle highlight the increasingly complicated illicit drug trade.
A recent report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office said the trade generates as much as $23 billion a year for Mexico-based drug cartels.
U.S. authorities say as much as 90 percent of the cocaine sold in the U.S. is shipped through Mexico.
At least three suspects, including a Mexican pilot, are in Mexican custody. Mexican authorities say two of the men offered them money if they would give back the cocaine and release any crew members.
The Gulfstream II departed Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on Sept. 18. In the days between then and the plane's crash, it apparently flew to Mexico, then to Colombia and was on its way back to Mexico when Mexican anti-drug aircraft intercepted it.
"The cocaine was to be delivered to El Chapo," said an official in the Mexican attorney general's office, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "We do know it was from Colombia."
Guzman has acquired an almost mythic status in Mexico. After breaking out of jail in 2001, he has repeatedly eluded capture and is revered in some parts of this impoverished nation as a Robin Hood figure who distributes some of his ill-gotten gains to the poor.