Mexico’s former Secretary of Defense, Salvador Cienfuegos, has been arrested in the United States and indicted on drug trafficking and money laundering charges, making him another high-ranking official to be arrested in connection with the drug cartels in Mexico.
Cienfuegos served as Mexico’s defense minister from 2012 to 2018, and was a key member of then-President Enrique Pena Nieto’s cabinet. Cienfuegos was arrested and taken into custody by U.S. authorities last night while traveling with his family through Los Angeles Airport.
According to an indictment unsealed today by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, Cienfuegos is charged with money laundering and trafficking thousands of kilograms of heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, and marijuana into the United States from December 2015 through February 2017.
The 72-year-old aided the H-2 group, which has been accused of committing numerous atrocities and smuggling drugs by sea, and would order the military to shun the H-2 group in favor of H-2’s competitors in order to reap huge profits.
The indictment states that the evidence obtained by the authorities included the interception of cell phone messages between Sean Foges, nicknamed “The Godfather,” and drug cartel member Sang Kenji Ma. The crime is punishable in the U.S. by 10 years in prison or life in prison.
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