U.S. Renews Call to Keep Drug Suspect in Baja Jail

Concerned that one of the most wanted men in Orange County’s war on drugs is being released illegally from a prison in La Paz, U.S. officials in Mexico said Friday that they have renewed a protest to keep the suspect jailed until attempts to extradite him have been exhausted.

U.S. Embassy officials said they have complained to Mexico’s Foreign Ministry that Daniel James Fowlie, 57, the accused patriarch of a vast drug-smuggling operation, has been periodically released from Centro de Readaptacion Social to go fishing and take care of personal business.

“We have reports that he has been let out of prison and we are very concerned about those releases,” said a U.S. Embassy officer in Mexico City, who requested anonymity. “He is supposed to stay in jail.”

The Times reported Thursday that Fowlie, who has been contesting his extradition for three years, has been granted furloughs to go marlin fishing, visit his beachfront house and work on real estate projects in Cabo San Lucas, a burgeoning resort on the tip of Baja California. The popular spot for American sportsmen is about 140 miles from La Paz, where Fowlie is imprisoned.

According to U.S. Embassy officials, American citizens detained in Mexican prisons while contesting their extradition to the United States are not supposed to be released until the proceedings have been concluded.

Fowlie, whose alleged drug-smuggling ring was headquartered on a secluded ranch, has been fighting his extradition to Orange County on 49 drug charges since his capture by Mexican agents south of Acapulco in April, 1987.

The criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles alleges that Fowlie smuggled hundreds of thousands of pounds of marijuana and lesser amounts of cocaine into the United States through Cabo San Lucas.

Once the drugs were in the United States, prosecutors charge that Fowlie and others processed and packaged them at Rancho del Rio, a 213-acre Orange County ranch with 12 structures built of imported logs, tile and river rock.

So far, five people, including Fowlie’s two sons, have been convicted in connection with the alleged scheme, and his rustic property on some of the county’s most valuable undeveloped land has been confiscated under federal asset-seizure laws. The ranch was used by President Bush as a backdrop for a national address on drugs last summer.

Federal investigators also say that Fowlie is important to them because he might know about the reputed drug lords who are suspected in the torture-slaying of U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration Agent Enrique Camarena Salazar in 1985.

Despite repeated attempts over two days, the commandant of Centro de Readaptacion Social could not be reached for comment.

But a Mexican official familiar with the Fowlie extradition case said it would be improper for prison officials to grant the suspect even a temporary release.

“The correct thing is for him to stay; the incorrect thing is for him to leave,” said Sergio Padilla, a judicial director of the Foreign Ministry’s political affairs department. Padilla added that he did not know the details of Fowlie’s incarceration and was not authorized to discuss any protests by U.S. officials.

Fowlie, who told The Times in an interview that he has been released from prison on several occasions, denied any impropriety and said his periodic releases are legitimate work furloughs. He said he has never tried to escape and is always escorted by an armed guard from the prison.

The U.S. Embassy in Mexico City first lodged a formal complaint with the Mexican government in November after a U.S. vice consul from Tijuana visited the prison and demanded to see Fowlie.

Embassy officials said a prison guard told the vice consul that Fowlie was away from the prison, but Mexican authorities later denied that he was absent.

U.S. officials said Friday that they renewed their complaint, using information from The Times’ article detailing Fowlie’s releases from prison. In addition, officials said, the U.S. Consulate in Tijuana has been instructed to again attempt to determine whether Fowlie has been periodically released from custody.

Usually granted four-day passes, Fowlie retires to a rock-and-tile house he built on secluded beach property where his prized pit bulls stand guard and passing gray whales blow clouds of mist into the air.

Fowlie is a man of several talents; his engineering skills and construction equipment have been enlisted by a Mexican real estate company with plans for a shopping center. And the bar association of Baja California commissioned him to paint a long-eared horned owl for Carlos Salinas Gortari, the president of Mexico.

In prison, Fowlie wears his own clothes, usually jeans and flannel shirts. He is on a first-name basis with the staff, and the atmosphere in the prison yard is more akin to a city park. To help him take care of businesses on the outside, his Jeep Cherokee is parked on prison grounds and he has hired an errand boy for $400 a month.

Fowlie said he was granted periodic passes from prison in 1988, but the privileges were suspended until last December. Since then, his releases have resumed because of a recent Mexican court decision opposing his extradition, he said. It is not known how many times he has been released.

According to the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City, officials have never heard of any court decision rejecting the United States’ extradition request, but information about court rulings is sometimes unreliable.

In 1987, officials said, a federal judge in La Paz ruled that it would be possible to extradite Fowlie. Embassy status reports on Fowlie’s case show that he lost two other appeals of decisions approving his return and the issue is now before the Mexican Supreme Court for a final ruling.

Experts in Mexican law and U.S. diplomats say that Fowlie’s conditions of confinement during his extradition proceedings are typical of people who have money, prominence or the persuasiveness to convince authorities that they will not escape if released for short periods of time.

“They are not supposed to leave the facility. They have everything they need there. My reaction is that this is clearly irregular,” said professor Jorge A. Vargas, director of the Mexico-U.S. Law Institute at the University of San Diego School of Law.

If Fowlie is being released improperly, Vargas said, it could trigger a “very serious” investigation by Mexico’s judicial authorities, including the attorney general’s office and Ministry of the Interior. Specifically, he said, there might be violations of the country’s Penitentiary Act, which spells out the rights of inmates and the duties of prison authorities.

“I am not surprised,” said Enrique Ramirez, a San Diego attorney who specializes in Mexican law. “It sounds to me like he’s got the kind of benefits that money can bring you. And, if that is the case, he is going to have to keep paying for them.”