LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Mexican former defense minister Salvador Cienfuegos was ordered during a brief hearing in Los Angeles on Friday to remain in U.S. custody on drug trafficking charges at least until a formal hearing on his detention is held next week.
A federal magistrate judge issued the order after lawyers for Cienfuegos, who was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport on Thursday, asked for a postponement of the detention hearing.
Cienfuegos, 72, appeared by video-link from a Los Angeles area detention facility, wearing a face mask. The proceedings lasted only about five minutes.
He was taken into custody on an indictment handed down in U.S. District Court in New York that accuses him of using his office to protect a faction of the Beltran-Leyva narcotics cartel, directing operations against rival gangs and finding maritime transport for drug shipments.
The arrest of Cienfuegos – nicknamed El Padrino, or The Godfather, in an August 2019 indictment that was sealed until he was in U.S. custody – marked the first time a former Mexican defense minister has been indicted and detained.
Prosecutors are expected to seek his removal to New York in the coming weeks.
(Reporting by Steve Gorman and Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Leslie Adler and Daniel Wallis)
