Mexico's former Defense Secretary arrested at LAX on drug charges
Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard informed through his Twitter account that the Secretary of National Defense during the administration of Enrique Peña Nieto, General Salvador Cienfuegos Zepeda, was detained at the Los Angeles Airport, in California.
"I have been informed by Ambassador Christopher Landau of the United States that the former Secretary of National Defense, General Salvador Cienfuegos Zepeda, has been detained at the Los Angeles Airport, California," Ebrard Casaubón published.
The Secretary of Foreign Affairs added: "The Consul in Los Angeles will be informing me of the charges in the next few hours. We will offer the consular assistance to which you are entitled. I will keep you posted".
This is perhaps only comparable to the arrest in December of former Security Secretary Genaro Garcia Luna, who is on trial in a New York court on charges of "leading a criminal enterprise" with links to the Sinaloa Cartel, as well as conspiring to transport cocaine into the United States.
Sources inside the National Palace confirmed to this outlet that the arrest took place at the request of the DEA, so the first version would indicate that there would be a relationship between the trial against García Luna and the arrest of Cienfuegos Zepeda, who kept a close collaboration with the consulting firm of García Luna, as Mexican President López Obrador himself explained a few days ago.
Two weeks ago, LPO reported on the possible decision of Attorney General Alejandro Gertz Manero to focus on soldiers - and at most some captains - directly involved in the disappearance of the 43 students of Ayotzinapa. Protected witnesses speak of a criminal organization made up of high-ranking officials who monitored the shipment of drugs from Guerrero to the US, specifically to the city of Chicago.