Sunday, April 9, 2017

Drug smuggling from Mexico by Mexican Attorney General

Mexican official known as ‘Diablo’ jailed for smuggling drugs into US


A disgraced Mexican Attorney General was thrown in jail Saturday on charges by Brooklyn federal prosecutors that he earned $250 million from a massive conspiracy to smuggle drugs into the US.
Edgar Veytia, 46, is charged with conspiracy to import, manufacture and distribute cocaine, heroin and methamphetamines between January 2013 and last month.
Veytia, known in his native Nayarit district as “Diablo,” was immediately jailed at Metropolitan Detention Center pending his next court date on Wednesday.
The rushed hearing was held on a Saturday — in an otherwise inactive courthouse — for “security reasons,” his lawyer told The Post.
Veytia had been airlifted to New York from San Diego on Friday, said the lawyer, Gretchen Christina Von Helms.
A Brooklyn grand jury had secretly indicted him on March 2; he was first arrested March 27 in San Diego, at the border crossing from Tijuana.
Few details of the indictment have been revealed, but the government is seeking to seize up to $250 million from the alleged Mexican drug-lord if he’s convicted.
Veytia is a US citizen and maintains a home in Chula Vista, his attorney said.
Von Helms expects prosecutors to allege the drugs were transported from Mexico to The Big Apple, but she maintains her client’s innocence.
“So far all I’ve seen are allegations. I haven’t seen anything solid yet,” Von Helms told The Post.

No comments: