Nephew of Reputed Trafficker Held on Mexico Drug Charges
The government said Friday it had arrested the nephew of the leader of one of Mexico’s largest drug rings, which critics have claimed is connected to senior political figures.
Deputy Attorney General Mario Ruiz Massieu held a news conference to announce the arrest of Antonio Abrego Perez on drug-trafficking charges. The arrested man’s uncle, Juan Garcia Abrego, has been identified as chief of the Gulf cartel.
Ruiz Massieu said the nephew’s arrest brought Mexican police a step closer to breaking up the ring headed by Garcia Abrego, which allegedly ships narcotics from Colombia along Mexico’s east coast to the United States.
The announcement of Abrego Perez’s arrest comes amid controversy over claims that ranking government officials were linked to the cartel.
A journalist and former adviser to the attorney general’s office, Eduardo Valle Espinosa, charged last month in Washington, D.C., that Communications Secretary Emilio Gamboa Patron and other officials had ties to the Gulf cartel.
Gamboa and all others named have denied the charges.
On Thursday, the attorney general’s office said Valle had failed to produce evidence to support his claims.
Valle complained that the officials had not had time to analyze the material he presented to the Mexican Consulate in Washington.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
