Not Your Average Drug Bust

McMahon said that his client's life is in danger and that a team of black-suited men who claimed to be DEA agents recently broke into an apartment in Las Vegas and said they were searching for Ye Gon.

DEA officials in Washington have said that they were involved in no such raid.

McMahon said his client is an honest pharmaceuticals executive. He was "shocked and surprised" this spring, McMahon said, when U.S. law enforcement officials seemed uninterested in discussing Ye Gon's claim that the money seized at his mansion was not entirely his and that the drug charges had been fabricated.

"They'd be faced with undoing what they are calling the largest seizure of drug cash in the world," McMahon said.

DEA spokesman Garrison Courtney said the DEA considered the evidence carefully before bringing the charges. "We're pretty thorough in our investigations," he said. "We tend not to bring indictments unless we've done the amount of work that we need to do."

Mexican Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora called the arrest "magnificent news" and said Mexican officials would file for extradition, according to the Associated Press.

They have charged Ye Gon, who lived in a Mediterranean-style mansion in Mexico City's posh Las Lomas de Chapultepec neighborhood, with production of methamphetamine, possession of firearms and conducting operations with illegal proceeds.

U.S. authorities said nothing in court yesterday about extradition. They have charged Ye Gon with violating U.S. drug laws in connection with the alleged chemical sales because, they said, he knew or should have known that much of the methamphetamine eventually would be sold to users in the United States.

After the raid on his house, Ye Gon launched a public relations campaign, with help from lawyers in Washington, in his defense.

In an interview with the Associated Press in New York this month, he alleged that Mexico's future labor secretary, Javier Lozano, who was then working on Calderón's campaign, forced him to safeguard the millions, threatening to harm him if he failed to do so. The money would be used to finance Calderón's campaign and to carry out "terrorist" activities if Calderón lost, Ye Gon said. Mexican government officials have called the allegations preposterous.

Ye Gon's attorneys held a news conference July 18 at the National Press Club. Ye Gon, in an undisclosed location, took questions by phone.

The lawyers said Ye Gon intended to apply for political asylum in the United States. His immigration status is unclear. He had traveled to the Washington area to consult with his lawyers after his girlfriend was arrested in Las Vegas on sealed charges.