Mexico president accuses DEA of fabricating case
Mexico President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Friday that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration had fabricated drug trafficking accusations against ex Defense Minister Gen. Salvador Cienfuegos.
The day before, the Attorney General’s Office announced that it was abandoning the case against retired General Cienfuegos.
López Obrador suggested that there could have been political motivations behind U.S. authorities’ arrest of Cienfuegos at Los Angeles International Airport in October, noting that the investigation had been ongoing for years, but the arrest came shortly before U.S. presidential elections.
The president said that Mexican prosecutors had dropped the case because the evidence shared by the United States had “no incriminating value.”
The president said the evidence shared by the U.S. against Cienfuegos would be made public because the people should see and it had been a strike against Mexico’s prestige.
In a statement Thursday night, Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office went beyond just announcing they were closing the case.
Its statement cleared the general entirely. It said Cienfuegos had not been found to have any illicit or abnormal income, nor was any evidence found “that he had issued any order to favor the criminal group in question.
A seven-year investigation by the U.S. authorities was completely disproved by Cienfuegos within five days of having the U.S. evidence shown to him, the statement said.
All charges were dropped and Cienfuegos, who was never placed under arrest after he was returned by U.S. officials, is no longer under investigation.Subscribe for more Breaking News: http://smarturl.it/AssociatedPress
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