Is meth king Ye Gon talking to U.S. authorities?

The multibillion-dollar Mexican methamphetamine trade, which produces a majority of the drugs that pollute U.S. citizens, is a huge business but a small world.

While cartels war over trade routes and turf, murdering thousands each year, the handful of men who provide the enormous amounts of precursor chemicals needed to create the meth are the real kingpins.

Zhenli Ye Gon, noted Las Vegas casino high roller, was one of the giants of the precursor chemical trade. When he was busted, his home was found to contain more than $205 million in U.S. currency. One of his favorite ports of entry, a place some authorities have said he had “wired,” was Manzanillo port.

Fast forward to the present. Mexican authorities have announced the largest bust of meth precursor chemicals in the nation’s history. The bust was made out of the port of Manzanillo.

From the 2008 State Department International Narcotics Control Strategy Report:

“In July 2007, Mexican authorities seized 20,000 kilograms of potassium permanganate at the Port of Manzanillo, in Mexico, that originated in Taiwan. These same two companies involved in this shipment were serial offenders, having been involved in two similar shipments of approximately 20 tons of potassium permanganate that were seized at the Port of Manzanillo, Colima, Mexico, in October 2006 and November 2005. The November 2005 seizure was the subject of a Special Alert under Project Cohesion, an INCB project designed, among other things, to target the flow of potassium permanganate.

“Additional success was also achieved in 2007 by attacking the finances of chemical diversion traders. The highlight of this tactical approach was the 2007 arrest by U.S. law enforcement of Zhenli Ye Gon, a Chinese-born Mexico City businessman.

In March of 2007, Mexican officials found and seized more than $200 million in U.S. currency, as well as various foreign currencies hidden in his mansion in Mexico City.”

On Friday: “MEXICO CITY — Two raids by security forces have netted the largest seizures of methamphetamine precursor chemicals in Mexico's history, federal officials announced Friday.

“Agents seized 20 tons of chemicals used to produce methamphetamine at Manzanillo port in the Pacific coast state of Colima and 17 tons the border city of Nuevo Laredo, across from Laredo, Texas, Mexico's federal Attorney General's Office said in a news release.”

Perhaps by coincidence, that’s a port and a trade route Zhenli Ye Gon knows well.

AP: “The agency did not say when the raids took place and officials did not immediately return phone calls asking for more details.

“Mexico is a leading producer of methamphetamine, according to the U.S. government.

“The seizures are part of a national crackdown launched in 2006 against drug gangs. The cartels, under increasing pressure, have responded with unprecedented violence; more than 13,500 people have died in drug violence in 3 1/2 years.”

That makes me wonder: Is Zhenli Ye Gon talking?

If he is, what might he say about his operation, spending habits, and friends in Las Vegas?