The government says it has asked for the extradition of two Americans for abducting a fugitive in Mexico and whisking him to Arizona to serve a sentence for a drug crime.
The request to Washington came only days after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the United States was justified in the 1990 kidnapping of a Mexican physician wanted in the killing of a U.S. drug agent. The ruling jarred U.S.-Mexican ties.The Mexican attorney general's office said Thursday it was seeking two private investigators suspected of abducting Teodulo Romulo Lopez Saturday and spiriting him over the border to Arizona.
The investigators told U.S. Customs agents they had arrested the 35-year-old fugitive in the northern Mexican state of Sonora on a U.S. warrant for jumping bail, American authorities said.
The agents verified the warrant and took Romulo Lopez into custody, said port director Steve Rich.
Romulo Lopez was convicted in absentia in federal court in Tucson in November for possessing cocaine with intent to distribute. Authorities say he tried to sell 11 pounds of cocaine to undercover drug agents.
The attorney general's office said an arrest warrant was issued for the two Americans - identified as Vicente Madrid and Randy Flores - and that three Mexican police officers accused of complicity were being prosecuted.
Mexico briefly suspended anti-drug cooperation with Washington after the Supreme Court ruled Monday that the United States could seize people in a foreign country who are wanted for prosecution in the United States.
On Thursday, U.S. border authorities said several men who appeared to be Mexican federal judicial police followed a van as it crossed into Douglas, Ariz., and seized two men at gunpoint. They said the incident occurred on Monday, the same day as the Supreme Court ruling.