Former Defence Minister of Mexico, Salvador Cienfuegos, was reportedly arrested on Thursday in the United States at the request of the US Drug Enforcement Administration, in connection with a corruption investigation.
Cienfuegos, who was defence chief from 2012 to 2018 under former president Enrique Pena Nieto, was on a trip with his family when he was detained at Los Angeles airport.
Speaking of the development, Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said on Twitter, “The consul in Los Angeles will inform me of the charges in the next few hours. We will offer the consular assistance to which he is entitled,”
A Mexican investigative magazine named Proceso, while quoting unnamed sources at the US Department of Justice, reported that the arrest was the result of a long-standing investigation named “Operation Godfather” into corruption involving drug traffickers.
It said other senior military officials had also come under investigation when US authorities began to collect evidence against drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, who is serving a life sentence in the US.
US media including the Wall Street Journal reported that Cienfuegos was arrested at the request of the DEA.
Mexican prosecutors did not immediately respond to requests for information about why Cienfuegos was arrested.
Mexico’s government militarized the fight against the drug cartels in 2006, since when more than 296,000 people have been murdered, according to the authorities, who say most of the killings are linked to gang violence.
While defence minister, Cienfuegos complained about his troops having to take part in the country’s war on drug trafficking, saying the military was not suited for the job.
Cienfuegos is the second former Mexican minister who is detained in the United States.
The first, Ex-public security minister Genaro Garcia Luna was arrested in Texas in December 2019 on charges of taking huge bribes to allow El Chapo’s Sinaloa cartel to ship drugs into the US.
Garcia Luna, an architect of Mexico’s war on drug trafficking, pleaded not guilty.