DEA lands Mexican General Salvador Cienfuegos - El Padrino

U.S authorities detained the defence minister for Mexican ex-president Enrique Pena Nieto at LA airport on a DEA warrant. Defence minister General Salvador Cienfuegos was a powerful figure in Mexico’s drug war. He joins several other of Mexico’s former top-ranking ‘drug war’ officials who have been implicated in the country's drug trade.

Former President Enrique Pena Nieto.

Cienfuegos – nicknamed El Padrino, or The Godfather was a powerful figure.

Cienfuegos used his office to protect a faction of the Beltran-Leyva cartel, directing operations against rival gangs and even finding maritime transport to ship drugs. He accepted bribes in return for protection that included warning cartel members about investigations. One of the Beltran-Leyva brothers was killed in 2009, another arrested in 2014. By the time of Cienfuegos’ crimes between 2015 and 2017, the gang had a new leader, Juan Francisco Patron.