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Salvador Cienfuegos Zepeda, former Mexican Defense Minister, was arrested in the United States
Photo: Daniel Becerril / REUTERS
Former Mexican Defense Minister Salvador Cienfuegos Zepeda, arrested in the United States, has been charged with drug smuggling and money laundering.
He is said to have been involved in the production and distribution of "thousands of kilograms" of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and marijuana in the US between December 2015 and February 2017, according to the indictment published on Friday (local time) by the prosecutor in New York.
According to this, the 72-year-old nicknamed "The Godfather" is said to have abused his position to support the "extremely violent" Mexican H-2 cartel.
In exchange for bribes, he is said to have enabled the cartel, which regularly tortures and murders, to act with impunity in Mexico.
The indictment, which was brought up in 2019 but was not published until Friday, carries a prison sentence of at least ten years in the USA.
Cienfuegos Zepeda was arrested at Los Angeles airport on Thursday while traveling with his family.
The Mexican investigative magazine "Proceso" reported, citing sources in the US Department of Justice, that the arrest was the result of years of investigations into corruption in connection with drug trafficking.
Cienfuegos Zepeda was Minister of Defense from 2012 to 2018 under President Enrique Peña Nieto.
He is the second Mexican ex-minister to be arrested in the United States.
In December 2019, the former Minister of Homeland Security, Genaro García Luna, was arrested in Texas.
He, too, is said to have accepted high bribes from a drug cartel.
García Luna denies the allegations.
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nil / AFP