WASHINGTON, May 21 (UPI) -- Mexico has been extraditing a record number of suspected criminals to the United States, officials say.
The U.S. Justice Department reported 107 extraditions last year, the most ever, and said the number this year should be at least as high, The Washington Post reported. There have been major prosecutions in cities near the border, including Los Angeles and Houston, and more distant ones, including Chicago.
But the number of people extradited has been dwarfed by the numbers killed in the drug war along Mexico's border with the United States. Nearly 4,000 people were killed in the first four months of 2010.
Last week, a former Mexican governor was indicted in New York on charges of money laundering and conspiring with drug traffickers.
"We are dislocating the command and control structures of organized crime," Mexican Ambassador Arturo Sarukhan told the Post in an interview.
Officials also say the fear of landing in a U.S. prison deters some traffickers. A U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent said traffickers have little fear of Mexican prisons because they believe they can use bribery to live comfortably inside or to escape.
