Mexico asks US to extradite suspected meth maker

MEXICO CITY, July 13 (Reuters) Mexico has asked the United States to extradite a suspected narcotics manufacturer who owns a Mexico City mansion where police discovered 206 million dollar in cash earlier this year, a government source said today.

Mexican police raided the house, owned by Zhenli Ye Gon, last March and found wads of US bank notes in bulging suitcases and overflowing closets.

''A petition was made for (Ye Gon's) detention with the purpose of international extradition,'' a Mexican government source, who was not authorized to speak to the media, told Reuters.

Seven people were arrested after the raid in the swanky Lomas de Chapultepec neighborhood that also turned up six Mercedes-Benz vehicles and pistols equipped with silencers.

Police say a company run by Ye Gon illegally imported chemicals and that he was setting up a lab to make methamphetamine, a powerful stimulant.

Ye Gon caused a scandal by saying a Mexican government minister forced him to hide the cash under threat of death during last year's election campaign.

The government denies the claim, but opposition politicians say they want a congressional investigation.

In recent weeks media have reported Ye Gon was in the United States and not in police custody.

Mexico declined official comment on the extradition request, but newspapers reported a police plan to charge Ye Gon, originally from China but now a Mexican citizen, with drug-related crimes and possession of illegal firearms.

President Felipe Calderon has deployed thousands of police and soldiers across Mexico to clamp down on drug cartels since taking office in December. So far, March's raid of Ye Gon's house has been the only high-profile bust.

Mexican methamphetamine producers are muscling in on the US market, and so-called superlabs that mass produce the drug have relocated to Mexico, where precursor chemicals like pseudoephedrine are more easily available.

In January, Mexico extradited several suspected drug kingpins to the United States, including Osiel Cardenas, boss of the powerful Gulf cartel.

REUTERS RKM BST0243