MEXICO CITY – The Supreme Court ruled that the Extradition Treaty between Mexico and the United States was valid, throwing out an appeal by drug lord Benjamin Arellano Felix, one of the leaders of the Tijuana cartel, who is trying to avoid extradition to the United States.

The high court said the treaty was constitutional even though it was not signed by the president of Mexico, rejecting the key point argued in Arellano Felix’s appeal.

“Constitutional Article 133 stipulates that treaties that are in accordance with the Magna Carta ... will be the supreme law of the Union,” the Supreme Court said.

“The signing of a treaty is not limited to the signature on same, which can come from the president, the appropriate secretary or the representative whom he designates,” the high court said.

The Mexican government agreed on June 24, 2008, to extradite Arellano Felix to the United States.

The suspected Tijuana cartel boss is wanted by U.S. authorities on drug trafficking, criminal conspiracy, money laundering and other charges.

The Mexican government has extradited more than 200 criminals, the majority of them drug traffickers, to the United States in the past three years.

Benjamin Arellano Felix, who founded the Tijuana cartel with his brothers, has been one of the most-wanted drug traffickers in Mexico and the United States since 1980.

He was arrested in March 2002 in the central Mexican city of Puebla and sentenced to 22 years in prison on drug charges in 2007.

In October 2008, army troops and Federal Police captured Eduardo Arellano Felix, the brother of Benjamin and Francisco Javier Arellano.

Another brother, Ramon Arellano, was killed in 2002.

Francisco Javier Arellano was captured by the U.S. Coast Guard while fishing some 24 kilometers (15 miles) off the coast of the Baja California peninsula in 2006.

U.S. authorities allege that the Tijuana cartel smuggled cocaine and marijuana into the United States, and laundered money from the illegal business. EFE