(Indictment) Former Natl Security Chief Salvador Cienfuegos worked with Cártel de Nayarit (Beltran Leyva) alleges United States Attorney

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The United States accused Salvador Cienfuegos, Secretary of National Defense in the past sexenio (EPNs six-year term), of having worked for the H-2 Cartel, a violent criminal group based in Nayarit, in exchange for bribes.

The United States Attorney for Eastern Brooklyn today asked Judge Carol Bagley Ammon that, once he is sent from Los Angeles to New York, General Cienfuegos be under permanent arrest, in a letter detailing his alleged criminal activities and the risk escape if released on bail.

"Evidence including thousands of intercepted messages from Blackberry reveals that, when he was Secretary of Defense, the defendant, in exchange for bribes, assisted the H-2 Cartel in numerous ways, including ensuring that there were no military operations in  against the group; assuring initiating military operations against their rivals; obtaining maritime transport for drug shipments; acting to expand the territory controlled by H-2 to Mazatlán and the rest of Sinaloa, "the Attorney General's Office for the Eastern District of New York said today.

Cienfuegos also introduced cartel leaders to other corrupt Mexican officials, and alerted the DEA investigation, which led to the murder of a cartel member who was not actually collaborating with the US agency. 

"Among the many communications captured during the investigation, there are numerous messages between the defendant and a senior leader of the H-2 Cartel, in which the defendant discussed the assistance he had historically provided to another drug trafficking organization, as well as communications in which the defendant is identified by name, title and photograph, as the Mexican official who supports the H-2 Cartel, "the letter says.

He adds that this collaboration allowed the cartel, headed by Juan Francisco Patron Sánchez the "H-2", to export thousands of kilos of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and marijuana to the United States, without interference from the Mexican Army.

Patron Sánchez died in February 2017 in a confrontation with elements of the Navy in Tepic.

At the time of the events, from 2015 to 2017, Nayarit was governed by PRI member Roberto Sandoval, who has been accused by the United States of collaborating with drug trafficking, but has not been criminally charged, in contrast to Edgar Veytia, who was the State Attorney General.

Veytia was sentenced by the Brooklyn Court to 20 years in prison in 2019, after pleading guilty to drug trafficking charges, identical to those brought against Cienfuegos.

The Prosecutor's Office asked to detain Cienfuegos without the right to bail, since he would face life imprisonment if convicted of the charges against him, and if he returned to Mexico, he would have the collaboration of drug traffickers or corrupt officials to avoid being arrested.

It is the same argument used in the same Court, when bail was denied to the former Secretary of Public Security, Genaro García Luna, imprisoned in the United States since December 2019.

Salvador Cienfuegos Zepeda ... by Chivis Martinez

"As evidenced by the criminal conduct of the accused, he has no respect for authority or the law, and has previously endangered the safety of US agents and their witnesses, by revealing the status of investigations against the H-2 Cartel to its leaders, so there is no reason to believe that he will respect the conditions of liberty imposed by the Court, "said Prosecutor Seth DuCharme.

Note: H2

Many in the U.S. are probably scratching their collective heads wondering who cartel H2 is. 

H2 is a Beltran Leyva Organization cell operating Nayarit for the cartel.  Juan Francisco Patron was the leader.

Known as 'H2', Patrón was an an important part of the Beltrán Leyva Cartel organization in the drug trafficking in the areas of Nayarit and Jalisco, in the Mexican Pacific.

Patron was once a part of Sinaloa Cartel, at the time BLO was before the acrimonious split.

Patron was killed in an intense operation in Tepic the Nayarit capital in 2017.

The Mexican military cornered Patron in a house when his enforcers began a fierce shootout with guns and grenades. (view video below).

From the air and land, the military returned gunfire from which Patron was killed taking with him a dozen of his men.

Patron was blamed for the death of 5 soldiers in an ambush against a military convoy, and wounding another 10, as they escorted an ambulance carrying “El Kevin” Of the Sinaloa Cartel, he survived serious injuries only to be later killed and left “encobijado” .

At the time of the attack what Cienfuegos said:

“Upon entering Culiacan, the Military units were received with high-power weapon fire and the wounded person, "El Kevin" was "rescued" from the Army by the armed commando: the very next day the Secretary of National Defense, General Salvador Cienfuegos Zepeda, described the armed commandos as "sick, insane, beasts and criminals" for attacking the uniformed soldiers.”

Salvador Cienfuegos Zepeda ... by Chivis Martinez