Former Mexican Defense Minister General Salvador Cienfuegos Zepeda, pictured in 2018. "In exchange for bribe payments, he permitted the H-2 Cartel - a cartel that routinely engaged in wholesale violence, including torture and murder - to operate with impunity in Mexico," prosecutors said in a court filing. Cienfuegos' downfall has far reaching implications for Mexico's anti-cartel strategy, led largely by the armed forces for more than a decade. On his watch, the army was accused of extrajudicial killings, including the June 2014 Tlatlaya massacre in central Mexico, where 22 drug gang members were shot dead. Reuters was not immediately able to contact a lawyer the US Attorney's office in Brooklyn said was representing the defendant.

Source: Otago Daily Times October 17, 2020 03:56 UTC