Former President Enrique Peña Nieto greets General Salvador Cienfuegos.OMAR TORRES / AFP
A federal judge in Los Angeles, California, decreed this Monday unconditional imprisonment against Salvador Cienfuegos Zepeda, a former defense minister of Mexico, who will not be released from prison while he faces serious drug trafficking charges against him.
Judge Alexander MacKinnon accepted all the arguments of the federal prosecutor's office, which assures that Cienfuegos will flee to Mexico if he is released on bail and will take advantage of his contacts with organized crime to evade justice.
The defense of Cienfuegos offered to pay a bond of 750,000 dollars, which is "his life savings", but the judge rejected this possibility.
The case against Cienfuegos is in federal court in Brooklyn, New York.
The judge and the parties agreed that the order to transfer the general to New York will not be signed before this Friday.
This is what the defense requested, because the general has a Mexican lawyer who is in Los Angeles and has not yet been able to speak with him.
In addition, the protocols for the covid-19 made it impossible to make the transfer before.
The former top Mexican Army official is charged by the Department of Justice with four counts, three directly related to drug trafficking and one of money laundering related to that activity.
The events described by the prosecution to request his unconditional imprisonment span from 2015 to 2017 and practically describe him as one more operative chief of the Beltrán Leyva cartel, one of the most violent in Mexico.
Cienfuegos was arrested last Thursday upon arrival at the Los Angeles airport.
He was accompanied by his family and traveled on a tourist visa.
Cienfuegos visits to the United States have been infrequent over the years.
According to the DEA, the previous time he was in the country was in March 2019. The DEA complaint is dated March 14, 2009.
