LOS ANGELES, Oct 16 — US authorities detained the defence minister for Mexican ex-president Enrique Pena Nieto at Los Angeles airport yesterday on a US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) warrant, a DEA spokeswoman told Reuters.
As defence minister General Salvador Cienfuegos was a powerful figure in Mexico's drug war in which the army battled cartels across the country.
Mexico's Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said on Twitter that he was informed of the detention of Cienfuegos by the US ambassador to Mexico.
“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 he is entitled. I will keep you posted,” said Ebrard.
A Mexican diplomatic source said members of Cienfuegos' family, travelling with him at the time of the detention, have already been released.
The DEA spokeswoman told Reuters she did not have further details on the circumstances of the arrest, whether Cienfuegos was coming or going at the Los Angeles airport, or whether family or others were traveling with him.
Cienfuegos, 72, held the rank of a four star Army general and was Pena Nieto's defence minister until the end of the president's term.
“This detention is going to have a powerful impact in Mexico,” said military affairs analyst Raul Benitez.
Pena Nieto was in office for six years through December 2018. Several members of his cabinet and party have been implicated in high-level corruption cases, sometimes involving allegations of links to organised crime.
The detention of Cienfuegos comes on the heels of the arrest of ex-President Felipe Calderon's security minister, Genaro Garcia Luna. Garcia Luna was arrested in Texas last year on suspicion of accepting millions of dollars in bribes from a major drug cartel he was tasked with combating. — Reuters
