(CNN) -- The mother of three Mexicans jailed in Malaysia for allegedly manufacturing drugs is pleading for authorities to intervene in their case. They face death by hanging if convicted.
Referring to Mexican President Felipe Calderon, Carmen Villarreal Espinoza said, "I ask that he lend us a hand to get our sons out of there." And she added, "I ask God to help us, to give us strength."
The Gonzalez Villarreal brothers -- Luis Alfonso, 43, Simon, 36, and Jose Regino, 33 -- were arrested in March 2008 outside an industrial building in Johor state, where police seized 250 kilograms of methamphetamine and chemicals used to produce it. They were charged with violations of Malaysia's Dangerous Drug Act.
The three are from Culiacan, Mexico, considered a cradle of the drug trade.
Villarreal said the last time she heard from her sons was after their arrest in March 2008.
They called to say that they had been mistaken for drug traffickers and arrested, she told CNNMexico from her home in the suburbs of Culiacan, the largest city in Sinaloa state, in northwestern Mexico.
She said she learned they faced a death sentence only when she read a newspaper article this week. "I'd like to see them," she said, but a heart ailment and lack of funds mean she cannot fly to visit them.
"My sons -- thank God, who never have traveled down a bad path -- they have no criminal history, nothing," she said.
Villarreal said her sons used to make bricks for a living in Mexico but left in February 2008 for better opportunities without telling her where they were going.
"They told me they were going to a job, that a friend had invited them and that they'd likely be back by Mother's Day. And, well, they never came back."
If convicted, there is only one sentence prescribed by law: hanging. The only other possibility is acquittal.
The lawyer for the brothers, who calls them "the boys," told CNN that the three have no ties to any drug trafficking organization and were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The trial is in recess until April 27, when the Gonzalez brothers' defense will make its arguments and the brothers themselves will have a chance to testify, said attorney Kitson Foong. The prosecution has already presented its case.
During the nearly three years the brothers have been in custody, they have received no visits from relatives and only one early visit from the Mexican Embassy, Foong said. A report in the Milenio newspaper spread their story to a wider audience.
But Mexico's Foreign Ministry offered a different take. In a statement Thursday, it said it has offered and will continue to offer consular assistance to the brothers. It said Mexican authorities offered to support them in obtaining legal representation, but the three opted to get their own counsel. Last January, using their own resources, the defendants hired a new lawyer, it said.
Embassy personnel have met several times with the men, most recently last October, and have been in contact with their lawyer, it said.
The statement said Mexican authorities have also been in touch with the Gonzalez family in Mexico to offer advice; the family denies that the government has briefed it on the case.
Foong said he has been called to the Mexican Embassy in Malaysia to update authorities on the case.
The attorney said he could not talk in detail of the brothers' story until the defense presents its case in court, but offered an outline of how the brothers ended up in Malaysia.
"They were traveling, they were seafarers. They work on ships," he said. "They came over to Vietnam first in search of work, and then were promised jobs on a merchant ship in Singapore."
While they were waiting to board the ship in Malaysia, they found employment for a couple of weeks cleaning factories, Foong said.
Prosecutors have presented drugs and paraphernalia that were allegedly found at the trio's location the night of the raid. But Foong dismissed it as unpersuasive. Police have lost a third to a half of the seized drugs, four policemen are under investigation for the loss, and one committed suicide, the lawyer said.
Because the evidence had been tampered with, it should not have been admitted in court, Foong said.
"The judge accepted the evidence, to the utter surprise of everyone," he said.
Now, Foong says his clients are pleading for a fair trial.
"The boys are terribly scared," he said. "I can only ask for the world to really keep them in their minds."
Foong rejected any suggestion that the Gonzalez brothers exemplify the growing reach of the Mexican drug cartels. "Not every Mexican is a drug trafficker. There is no evidence of that in this case," he said.
Mexican drug cartels have spread their operations into Central and South America, and there have been reports of activities in Asia, said David Johnson, a former assistant secretary of state in the Obama administration.
But activities in Asia are so anecdotal that it's difficult to be sure of what is true, he told CNN.
He called any Mexican drug cartel reach into Asia "very limited and, as far as I know, not very well tested or sourced."
James R. Jones, former U.S. ambassador to Mexico, told CNN he was aware of Mexican cartels expanding the scope of their activities in recent years to West Africa and Europe. "But Asia? I had not heard that one," he said.
Foong said that if the judge convicts the brothers, they would still have two layers of appeals that could last three years before they are exhausted.
CNN's Tom Watkins, Rene Hernandez and Carlos Rosas contributed to this report.
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