Recaptured drug suspect pleads not guilty

A major figure in a prominent Mexican drug cartel has pleaded not guilty to charges that he helped import tons of marijuana onto Long Island and fled to Mexico in 2003 after he was released on bail on the drug charges, according to officials.

Bruno Garcia-Arreola, 53, was recaptured in Mexico recently by Mexican marines working with the U.S. Marshals Service New York/New Jersey fugitive task force and extradited back to Long Island, officials said.

Charles Dunne, the U.S. marshal for the Eastern District, said in a statement: "The United States marshals, working with our law enforcement partners at home and abroad, never stopped looking for Arreola for eight years. This case illustrates that once the United States marshals start looking for you there really is nowhere you can hide."

Arreola, a Mexican national, was arrested in Las Vegas in 2003 for his alleged role in supplying marijuana to Long Island, but fled back to Mexico after he was released on $20,000 bail by a judge in Nevada over the objections of federal prosecutors, according to a letter filed in court by Burton Ryan, an assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York.

The letter, seeking to bar Arreola from being released on bail again, said he had been "identified by the Mexican government as a high-ranking member" of the Sinaloa cartel.

That cartel is "considered by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to be 'the most powerful drug trafficking organization in the world,' " Ryan's letter said.

U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Platt held Arreola without bail after his arraignment Thursday in federal court in Central Islip.

If convicted, Arreola faces 10 years to life in prison.

With AP