Mexican Prosecutor Jailed in New York on Narco Charges

Edgar Veytia, attorney general of Mexico’s western state of Nayarit, was once himself targeted for death by the narco-gangs. But on April 8, he was ordered to be jailed by a U.S. federal judge in Brooklyn, facing charges of trafficking cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine into the United States.

Veytia, who has now won the epithet in Nayarit of “Diablo,” allegedly netted at least $250 million in protection payments from a smuggling ring since his election in 2013, according to the Daily News.

After entering a “not guilty” plea, Veytia was remanded to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn pending a bail hearing.

The grand jury indictment of Veytia claims that he, “together with others, did knowingly and intentionally conspire to manufacture and distribute one or more controlled substances, intending, knowing and having reasonable cause to believe that such substances would be unlawfully imported into the United States.”

Veytia was taken into custody on March 27 as he crossed the Otay Mesa bridge from Tijuana’s airport into San Diego, where he has a second home. The arrest—by a joint team of FBI, DEA and Homeland Security agents—was made on a warrant issued by the federal court for the Eastern District of New York earlier that month..

Veytia, who survived a 2011 assassination attempt, painted himself as an anti-crime tough cop when he ran for election as attorney general.

“Nayarit is not fertile ground for lawbreaking,” he then boasted. “Here, there is no room for organized crime.”

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