Drug Suspect to Be Jailed 3 More Months
WASHINGTON (AP) — A judge has agreed to hold a Chinese-Mexican businessman in jail for three more months while prosecutors assemble their case charging that he conspired to bring large amounts of methamphetamines into the United States.
U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan on Friday denied prosecutors' initial request to keep Zhenli Ye Gon jailed for a year while they gather information. Ye Gon, 44, was arrested July 23 in the Washington area.
"You say you have all this evidence, but you haven't turned anything over," Sullivan said. "The man was arrested two months ago. That concerns me."
Sullivan said the government needs to "proceed at something more than a snail's pace."
Mexican authorities have said they seized more than $205 million in U.S. drug profits from Ye Gon's Mexico City mansion in March — the largest drug-related cash seizure in history, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
U.S. prosecutors acknowledged Friday that they hadn't seen the money. (((?!)))
"I've seen a video of it," said Justice Department lawyer Paul Laymon.
Ye Gon has said chemicals imported by his pharmaceutical company, Unimed Pharm Chem de Mexico SA, were legitimate and intended for cold medicines, not methamphetamine production. His defense attorneys have argued that he was framed by Mexico's ruling party and that he had been ordered to store an illegal presidential slush fund. (((I assumed that this tale was crazy on the face of it; now I'm starting to wonder.)))
Laymon said the U.S. has records of Ye Gon's gambling debts in Las Vegas, which amount to more than $120 million over several years.
Lisa Angelo, one of Ye Gon's attorneys, said the government's case has been fixated on Ye Gon's money and gambling debts, but he isn't charged with money laundering or illegal gambling.
