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U.S. Dropping Drug Charges Against Mexico’s Ex-Defense Chief

Barr Seeks Dismissal of Case Against Mexico’s Ex-Defense Chief

U.S. Attorney General William Barr said he’ll seek the dismissal of drug-trafficking charges against Mexico’s former defense minister so that the nation’s prosecutors can investigate him in his home country.

U.S. prosecutors will share evidence with Mexico to support their investigation against the former minister, General Salvador Cienfuegos, according to a joint statement from both countries.

The move throws the case back to Mexican prosecutors, who have a dodgy track record of making charges stick. Cienfuegos is being held without bail in Brooklyn on charges he helped a narcotics ring while he was defense minister. The U.S. shift is raising questions about the chances that Cienfuegos will be properly investigated, and about why the U.S. changed course so suddenly.

In a court filing seeking the dismissal, which was initially sealed but ordered to be made public Tuesday by the judge in the case, prosecutors said that despite strong evidence against Cienfuegos the “United States has determined that sensitive and important foreign policy considerations outweigh the government’s interest in pursuing the prosecution of the defendant.”

U.S. Dropping Drug Charges Against Mexico’s Ex-Defense Chief

Cienfuegos was scheduled to appear at a hearing in Brooklyn Federal Court on Wednesday. U.S. District Court Judge Carol B. Amon ordered the U.S. Attorney in Brooklyn to be at that hearing.

“In all my 31 years in the DEA I’ve never seen anything this convoluted,” Mike Vigil, a former head of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s international operations, said in an interview. “I don’t think this will go very far in Mexico’s judicial system, given the contacts Cienfuegos has in Mexico” and the high regard Mexico holds for the army, he said.

Cienfuegos pleaded not guilty on Nov. 5 to the drug-trafficking and money-laundering charges. He was accused by the U.S. of helping the H2 drug cartel by targeting its rivals for military action and warning it of U.S. investigations, among other acts.

Prosecutors cited thousands of intercepted Blackberry messages to paint a picture of Cienfuegos, nicknamed “Padrino” or “Godfather,” as an all-powerful benefactor who made sure thousands of kilograms of methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin and marijuana made their way into U.S. cities, producing millions of dollars in illicit cash.

In a letter to the judge in Brooklyn, prosecutors said Cienfuegos would voluntarily leave the country and be transported to Mexico in the custody of U.S. Marshals. They said disclosure of the letter before Wednesday’s hearing “could harm the government’s relationship with a foreign ally.”

Mexico’s Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said the U.S. decision was a “positive” step after his country had expressed its disagreement over Cienfuegos’s arrest without having been notified of the probe. Ebrard said the decision had nothing to do with the U.S. election. President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is one of few world leaders who has so far refrained from congratulating president-elect Joe Biden on his victory.

Ebrard, speaking at a news conference, said prosecutors in Mexico would see if they can build a case against him.

“The charges will have to be substantiated and proved,” Ebrard said. “We do not see this as a path to impunity, but rather as an act of respect for Mexico and the Mexican armed forces.”

The U.S. had justified Cienfuegos’s arrest on American soil due to the risk that drug traffickers and former officials could shield him from prosecution in Mexico.

An investigation in Mexico could also complicate Lopez Obrador’s relationship with the military, which has become the pillar of his efforts to rein in record levels of violence.

“In recognition of the strong law enforcement partnership between Mexico and the United States, and in the interests of demonstrating our united front against all forms of criminality, the U.S. Department of Justice has made the decision to seek dismissal of the U.S. criminal charges,” according to the joint U.S.-Mexico statement.

The case is U.S. v. Salvador Cienfuegos Zepeda, 1:19-cr-00366, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York (Brooklyn).

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.