2 San Diego Suspects in Cardinal’s Slaying Ordered Extradited

SAN DIEGO —  A federal judge ruled Monday that two San Diego street gang members accused of working as hired guns for a Mexican drug cartel should be extradited to Mexico to stand trial for the slaying last year of the Roman Catholic cardinal of Guadalajara.

The two suspects belong to the 30th Street gang, which became embroiled in one of the most notorious recent crimes in Mexico: a shootout at the Guadalajara airport in May, 1993, that killed Cardinal Juan Jesus Posadas Ocampo and six others.

About 30 young gang members entered into an unprecedented cross-border alliance with the Arellano drug cartel of Tijuana, working as bodyguards and assassins in a war for control of the northwest Mexican border area, according to law enforcement officials in both countries. Eight gang members have been arrested, and one died last year in a Guadalajara prison under mysterious circumstances.

But the three cartel kingpins, the Arellano brothers of Tijuana, have evaded capture with the aid of corrupt law enforcement allies. Church officials and other critics have questioned the government’s assertion that the gunmen accidentally killed the cardinal--who was shot 14 times at point-blank range--when his chauffeured car drove into a shootout between rival gangsters. The Arellanos gunmen escaped on a Tijuana-bound commercial flight that was held for them by airport authorities.

In his ruling Monday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Leo S. Pappas found evidence that Jesus (Cougar) Zamora Salas, 21, and Carlos Enrique (Tarzan) Garcia, 24, were part of an assassination squad sent to Guadalajara to kill a rival cartel boss.

“The evidence against the respondents is probable, at the very least, that they were involved in the planning if not the actual exchange of gunfire at the Guadalajara airport,” Pappas wrote.

The judge rejected defense claims that the case presented by U.S. prosecutors on behalf of Mexican authorities was weak because most of the evidence came from the confessions of four suspects who were allegedly tortured by Mexican police. Defense lawyers also argued that their clients face death if they are sent south of the border, but prosecutors said human rights questions are irrelevant in the narrowly focused extradition hearing process.

Zamora and Garcia are U.S. citizens who were born in Mexico. Barring a successful petition to stay the judge’s order, their extraditions could take place within days, Assistant U.S. Atty. John Pierce said.

Federal agents in Southern California are still hunting for two Arellanos lieutenants who allegedly recruited the assassination squad--veteran 30th Street gang members Alfredo (Popeye) Araujo and David Barron Corona.