Former Mexico Defense Minister Arrested for Taking Bribes, Aiding Cartels

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David Luhnow and José de Córdoba report for the WSJ:

Mexico’s former defense minister received bribes from a leading drug cartel in exchange for allowing them to ship tons of cocaine and other drugs to the U.S. and helping them expand their operations in Mexico, U.S. prosecutors alleged on Friday. 

The allegations are part of an indictment unsealed Friday against Gen. Salvador Cienfuegos, who served as defense minister from 2012 to 2018 in President Enrique Peña Nieto’s administration and led the army’s war on drug cartels. U.S. agents arrested the retired general at Los Angeles International Airport on Thursday as he arrived with his family.

Gen. Cienfuegos, 72, is the highest-ranking Mexican official ever charged with drug-related corruption. The arrest will damage bilateral cooperation on counternarcotics, harm the image of one of the few institutions in Mexico that the public trusts, and raise more doubts about Mexico’s strategy of relying on the army to chase powerful drug cartels.

“This is a huge scandal,” said Jorge Chabat, a professor of international relations at the University of Guadalajara. “It’s a devastating blow to the Mexican army, which is the most important pillar of [President Andrés Manuel] López Obrador’s security strategy.”

Mexico’s president said the arrest showed that corruption is the country’s biggest problem and reinforced his longstanding claim that past administrations were hopelessly corrupt.