Posted on March 30, 2017

Mexico: Border Officials Arrest State Attorney General

Mexico News Daily, March 29, 2017

Édgar Veytia Cambero

Édgar Veytia Cambero (Credit Image: Twitter/@FiscaliaNayarit)

The Attorney General of Nayarit was arrested by United States border agents yesterday on charges of trafficking in heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana.

Édgar Veytia Cambero was detained in San Diego on an arrest warrant issued March 2.

The newspaper Reforma reported today that the U.S. Department of Justice is seeking the seizure of US $250 million in assets linked to Veytia.

A federal grand jury in Brooklyn, New York, has accused the Nayarit politician with conspiring to manufacture, import and distribute drugs between 2013 — the year he was appointed state Attorney General — and February this year.

The investigation into Veytia began in 2012 when he was a deputy Attorney General in Nayarit.

He was scheduled to appear in court in San Diego yesterday, but there has been report as to the outcome.

A surprised Nayarit Governor Roberto Sandoval confirmed Veytia’s arrest during a press conference this morning, but was unable to provide further information. Details of the arrest had not been made public, he said.

Carlos Alberto Rodríguez Valdés was named to replace Veytia as acting Attorney General.

Veytia’s political career began in 2008 when he was named transit director of Tepic by then-mayor Sandoval, now the governor.

He was placed in charge of security in the municipality a year later and in 2011 moved to a post at the state Attorney General’s office.