Former Mexican defense secretary accused of drug trafficking to be turned over to Mexico for investigation

Embarrassment and anger

However the arrest additionally embarrassed and angered many within the Mexican authorities, who complained that US authorities hadn’t offered sufficient notification, in keeping with US and Mexican officers briefed on the matter. Excessive-level talks ensued in latest weeks to permit Mexican authorities to attempt to prosecute the overall, a US official mentioned.

Mexico’s International Secretary Marcelo Ebrard mentioned on Tuesday night in a information convention that he had a dialog with Barr following Cienfuegos’ arrest, expressing Mexico’s “discontent” for “the lack of expertise shared within the investigation” and detention of Cienfuegos.

“We have now an alliance towards organized crime and it was not, for us, the federal government of Mexico, comprehensible that being allies we’d not be notified,” Erbard mentioned.

Tensions between the nations had grown within the month because the arrest, prompting the Mexican authorities to weigh what motion it ought to absorb response, a Mexican authorities official instructed CNN.

“We had already been wanting on the safety relationship already with the DEA and others saying, is that this the precise solution to go? Is that this working or not? (The arrest of Cienfuegos) didn’t assist.”

The official mentioned he didn’t have direct data of any ultimatums Mexico may need made throughout negotiations, corresponding to limiting the DEA’s potential to work collectively with Mexican safety forces, however mentioned senior Mexican diplomats undoubtedly expressed their unhappiness with the US. “It is unacceptable to deal with an ally this fashion,” the supply mentioned.

The supply added that the choice to request costs be dropped towards Cienfuegos so he might probably face costs in Mexico was seen as a serious step towards bettering bilateral relations that had threatened to proceed to bitter.

Mexican prosecutors had opened their very own investigation into Cienfuegos after his arrest within the US, the joint US-Mexico assertion mentioned. And “within the curiosity of demonstrating our united entrance towards all types of criminality” and “in order that he could also be investigated and, if acceptable, charged underneath Mexican legislation,” the US Division of Justice determined to hunt the dismissal of costs, the assertion mentioned.

Officers cracking down on cartels

The New York prosecutors who charged Cienfuegos have been in the identical workplace that efficiently prosecuted Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, who was sentenced in 2019 to life in jail plus 30 years. In July, the identical US, lawyer’s workplace introduced costs towards Genaro García Luna, former Secretary of Public Safety, Mexico’s prime federal investigative company, for allegedly aiding the Sinaloa cartel’s drug trafficking operations.

Barr, who has customary himself as a troublesome legislation and order man throughout his present tenure, has additionally boasted internally about his work with Mexican authorities to realize extradition of prime drug trafficking suspects. The deal to return Cienfuegos with solely a promise by Mexican authorities to analyze him has angered investigators and prosecutors who’ve spent years working to focus on Mexican drug traffickers and the corrupt officers who protected them, in keeping with present and former officers briefed on the matter.

Final month, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who has vowed to crack down on the cartels and corruption, known as Cienfuegos’s arrest, “a really regrettable reality.”