Mexico says it will investigate whether its federal agents protected a Chinese-Mexican businessman tied to the largest seizure of drug cash in world history, while the businessman's lawyers told a Washington news conference they fear for their client's life if he is returned to Mexico.
Zhenli Ye Gon and his lawyers said about US$150 million of the more than US$205 million found hidden at Ye Gon's Mexico City mansion in March was a political slush fund for last year's presidential campaign of President Felipe Calderon, who narrowly won. They released no evidence to support that claim.
His US lawyer, Martin McMahon, said he would ask that Ye Gon be given asylum in the US and asked for US congressional hearings into his client's claims. Ye Gon's lawyers also said they offered to have him submit to an interview by the US Drug Enforcement Administration, but US officials have not responded.
"We're talking about a major political party whose operatives hid US$150 million," McMahon told the news conference in Washington. "They failed to disclose that in their election campaign reporting. We're putting out there a very serious charge. If he goes back to Mexico, he's going to be tortured. ... We're convinced he faces death."
However, Ye Gon, speaking to the news conference by telephone, said he was convinced Calderon himself knew nothing of the alleged scheme.
He said that men who had identified themselves as linked to Calderon's National Action Party forced him to hold the cash, and "they always told me it was for the political campaign."
Calderon has called the accusations "pure fiction."
Ye Gon is charged in Mexico with drug trafficking, money laundering and weapons possession for allegedly importing 19 tonnes of a pseudoephedrine compound used to make methamphetamine -- charges that he denies.
Although Mexico has requested Ye Gon's extradition, US officials have not detained him.
Also Wednesday, the Mexican attorney general's office said it is probing whether Mexican federal agents protected the businessman or extorted money from him, allegations that have been raised in the Mexican media.
Key details in Ye Gon's version of events seem contradictory, unclear or unverifiable, and a senior US anti-drug official said he knew of no evidence that the Calderon administration -- which has sent troops into the streets to fight drug cartels -- has links to organized crime.
In the news conference, Ye Gon stood by his claim that a Mexican official, Javier Lozano Alarcon, now Mexico's labor secretary, was the man who forced him to hold the money -- an accusation that Lozano has forcefully denied.
Ye Gon also confirmed that during an interview about the allegations in May, he was shown two photos, one of which he identified as being the Mexican official.
"I know that he is the labor secretary," Ye Gon said.
Ning Ye, the Ye Gon lawyer who went public with his client's claims this month by releasing a letter to the Mexican government that named the labor secretary, also said he stood by the accusations "because this is the truth."
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not