Justice Department drops drug trafficking charges against former Mexican defense minister dubbed 'The Godfather' so he could be investigated by Mexico

The Justice Department is dropping its drug trafficking and money laundering case against former Mexican defense secretary General Salvador Cienfuegos, Attorney General William Barr said on Tuesday.

Barr said the department would drop its case so Cienfuegos 'may be investigated and, if appropriate, charged, under Mexican law.' 

The 72-year-old - nicknamed El Padrino, or 'The Godfather' - was taken into custody at Los Angeles International Airport last month. 

He was accused of using his office to protect Mexico's H-2 narcotics cartel. 

Cienfuegos, who led Mexico's army for six years under ex-President Enrique Peña Nieto, was the highest-ranking former Cabinet official arrested since the top Mexican security official Genaro Garcia Luna was arrested in Texas in 2019.

Former Mexican Defense Secretary General Salvador Cienfuegos (seen above in 2016) will not be prosecuted by the federal government for drug trafficking and money laundering, the Department of Justice announced on Tuesday

Cienfuego (seen in the above court sketch from October 16, 2020 from his appearance in a Los Angeles federal court) will likely face charges in Mexico for using his office to protect Mexico's H-2 narcotics cartel

Cienfuegos was indicted by a federal grand jury in New York in 2019 and accused of conspiring to participate in an international drug distribution and money laundering scheme. 

Prosecutors alleged he helped the H-2 cartel smuggle thousands of kilos of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and marijuana while he was defense secretary from 2012 to 2018.

Prosecutors said intercepted messages showed Cienfuegos worked to ensure that the military did not take action against the cartel and that operations were initiated against rivals in exchange for bribes. 

He was also accused of introducing cartel leaders to other corrupt Mexican officials.

In court papers last month, US prosecutors had argued Cienfuegos was a significant flight risk and said he would 'likely seek to leverage his connections to high level H-2 Cartel members in Mexico, as well as former high-level corrupt government officials, to assist him in fleeing from US law enforcement and shelter him in Mexico.' 

Had he been convicted of the charges in the US, he would've faced at least 10 years in federal prison.

Cienfuegos is seen left alongside Mexico's then-President Enrique Pena Nieto during the annual Independence Day military parade in Mexico City's main square in November 2020

Under Cienfuegos, the Mexican army was accused of frequent human rights abuses, but that was true of both his predecessors and his successor in the post. 

The worst scandal in Cienfuegos' tenure involved the 2014 army killings of suspects in a grain warehouse.

The June 2014 massacre involved soldiers who killed 22 suspects at the warehouse in the town of Tlatlaya. 

While some died in an initial shootout with the army patrol - in which one soldier was wounded - a human rights investigation later showed that at least eight and perhaps as many as a dozen suspects were executed after they surrendered.

Barr said in a joint statement with Mexican Attorney General Alejandro Gertz Manero that the US Justice Department had made the decision to drop the US case 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 Justice Department said it has provided Mexico with evidence collected in the case.

The H-2 cartel is a branch of the Beltrán-Leyva Cartel, which is also known as the Beltrán-Leyva Organization. The cartel was born in 2008 out of the Sinaloa Cartel, which was founded by Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán

The H-2 cartel is a name for the Beltran-Leyva gang that was founded by cousins of Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman and was once engaged in a bloody war with his Sinaloa cartel. 

The cartel made millions of dollars through the distribution of drugs in New York, North Carolina, Minnesota, Ohio and Las Vegas and Los Angeles, court documents say. 

Last month's arrest of Cienfuegos marked the first time a former Mexican defense minister has been indicted and detained. 

Cienfuegos was a powerful figure in Mexico's drug war in which the army battled cartels across the country. 

The United States Defense Department awarded him the William J. Perry Award for Excellence in Security and Defense Education back in 2017. 

Cienfuegos, who has 54 years of active military service, retired from the military in November 2018, a month before President Andres Manuel López Obrador took office.

He served as commander for the XV Military Zone, V Military Region in Jalisco, I Military Region in Mexico City and the VII Military Region in Chiapas. 

Cienfuegos reportedly owns two houses, one apartment and a land plot along with several luxury vehicles. 

At the time of his retirement, he declared to the Mexican government that he had $645,858 in his bank account.  

WHO IS THE CARTEL AND WHAT ARE THEIR LINKS TO EL CHAPO? 

Prosecutors say the H-2 cartel is an alternate name for the violent Mexican drug trafficking organization called Beltrán-Leyva Organization . 

BLO, or Beltrán Leyva Cartel as it is also known, was founded by the Beltrán-Leyva brothers - Marcos Arturo, Carlos, Alfredo, Mario Alberto and Héctor in 2008.

The criminal group was born out of the Sinaloa Cartel, the syndicate founded by their cousin, Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán. 

The Beltrán Leyva Cartel transported and sold cocaine, heroin and marijuana via several corridors in Mexican states of Morelos, Guerrero, Quintana Roo, Oaxaca, Chiapas and Nayarit.

The Beltrán Leyva Cartel also had a hand in human trafficking operations, laundering money, extorting businesses,  smuggling of weapons, ordering kidnappings and assassinations. 

Both factions fell out following the arrest of Alfredo Beltrán-Leyva on January 2008. The BLO pinned the blame of Alfredo's apprehension on El Chapo, subsequently ordering the assassination of El Chapo's son, Édgar Guzmán. 

On May 8, 2008, Guzmán and two cousins died in a hail of bullets when they were attacked while sitting inside a vehicle at a shopping center in Culiacán, Sinaloa, after El Chapo's assassins confused them with a rival.

The cartel would lose its footing in the drug trafficking trade in the years to come.

Arturo Beltrán-Leyva was killed in a shootout with the Mexican military December 16, 2009, and Carlos Beltrán-Leyva was arrested by Mexican security forces December 30, 2009. Héctor Beltrán-Leyva was arrested October 1, 2014. 

Following Héctor Beltrán-Leyva's death, Juan Francisco Patrón assumed a top ranking position with the cartel and created his own branch, the H-2 Cartel, which infiltrated the Mexican government and managed to enlist top government officials, including the then defense minister, General Salvador Cienfuegos. 

Patrón was killed in a shootout with the military in 2017.