U.S. Holds Top Reputed Drug Lord -- `The Doll' Accused In Dozens Of Deaths, Massive Smuggling

MEXICO CITY - A man reputed to be one of the world's most notorious drug barons has been captured in Mexico and sent to Houston to face justice.

Juan Garcia Abrego, one of the FBI's 10 most-wanted fugitives, was arrested Sunday night in Villa de Juarez, a small town near the northern city of Monterrey. U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents played a role in the capture, according to U.S. sources.

Garcia Abrego, 51, appeared in Houston federal court today. He will be arraigned on Feb. 6 and is being held without bond.

He faces federal charges of drug trafficking, money laundering and attempted bribery that could keep him in prison for decades. He also is accused of murdering dozens of drug rivals.

As the alleged leader of the Gulf Cartel, so-called because it controls trafficking throughout northeastern Mexico and along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, he was the first to alter the business arrangement between Mexican cocaine traffickers and their Colombian partners.

Rather than taking cash to move thousands of kilograms from the Cali Cartel, Garcia Abrego allegedly persuaded the Colombians in the late 1980s to pay him with cocaine, which he then sold himself wholesale in Houston, Dallas or New York.

Other Mexican traffickers followed his example. In recent years, Garcia Abrego came under increasing pressure as his reputation for violence made protecting him more costly for the hundreds of politicians and police allegedly on his multimillion-dollar payroll.

Reports circulated last year that he was trying to negotiate surrender, hoping to hang on to a cut of his fortune and avoid extradition.

A native of Paloma, Texas, Garcia Abrego first gained notoriety as the head of a ring that supplied Mexico with stolen U.S. cars.

With a $2 million U.S. bounty on his head, he was suspected of multiple killings, including some related to devil worship.

Nicknamed "The Doll" because of his youthful face, Garcia Abrego is said to have several wives and mistresses. His fortune is placed at $2 billion, and he is said to own at least 86 homes.

Some political analysts believe Mexico agreed to deport Garcia Abrego as part of a deal to have former deputy attorney general Mario Ruiz Massieu prosecuted in Mexico. Ruiz Massieu, in the United States awaiting deportation proceedings, is accused of an array of misdeeds in Mexico, including the theft of government funds and the cover-up of his brother's murder. But U.S. judges have so far refused to extradite Ruiz Massieu.

Mexican newspaper reports have linked the cartel to Raul Salinas, brother of ex-President Carlos Salinas.

Raul Salinas, jailed in the slaying of Mario Ruiz Massieu's brother, prominent ruling-party official Jose Francisco Ruiz Massieu, has denied such links.

Interior Ministry Undersecretary Cesar Becker Cuellar denied in a radio interview that the government rushed Garcia Abrego out of the country in order to avoid a trial that might lead to embarrassing disclosures.

"No, I don't think so," he said. "The fact that the gentleman was taken to his country of origin was mainly intended to isolate him to stop him committing crimes in his own country."

The government sought to justify the rapid deportation by saying Garcia Abrego's U.S. nationality allowed it to expel him as an undesirable alien - allowed by the country's constitution. But Mexican commentators noted that he was wanted for murder and firearms offenses in Mexico and could have been tried there. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Compiled from The Dallas Morning News, Miami Herald, Chicago Tribune, Newsday, Associated Press and Reuters.