U.S. Attorney General William Barr said Tuesday that 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, Gen. 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 shift is raising questions about the chances that Cienfuegos will be properly investigated, and about why the U.S. changed course so suddenly. Cienfuegos was scheduled to appear at a hearing in Brooklyn federal court Wednesday, and the judge ordered the U.S. attorney in Brooklyn to appear at the 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.
The move could also complicate President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's relationship with the military, which has become the pillar of his efforts to rein in record levels of violence.
On Nov. 5, Cienfuegos pleaded not guilty to the charges against him. He was accused of aiding the H2 cartel by targeting its rivals for military action and warning it of U.S. investigations, among other acts.
"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.
Vigil said the next step, if a judge approves the dismissal, would be for Cienfuegos to be deported back to Mexico.
