Former Special Prosecutor Ruiz Massieu Arrested in U.S., Mexican Official Says

Mario Ruiz Massieu, who faced accusations this week of a cover-up in the investigation he headed into the murder of his brother, a top Mexican politician, was arrested in the United States on Friday for violating U.S. Customs laws, officials said.

A Mexican government official, who asked not to be identified, said Ruiz Massieu was seized by U.S. Customs Service agents at a New York-area airport for carrying undeclared quantities of cash that exceeded the $10,000 limit allowable under U.S. law.

The official declined to give the amount, but news reports said it may have been as much as $50,000.

Ruiz Massieu left Mexico on Thursday after a six-hour grilling in the attorney general’s office, where he defended himself against accusations that he had covered up the alleged role of former President Carlos Salinas de Gortari’s brother, Raul, in the murder of his own brother, Francisco.

Raul Salinas was arrested Tuesday on charges he masterminded the killing of Francisco Ruiz Massieu, secretary general of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, who was shot outside a Mexico City hotel last September.

Then-President Salinas, who left office at the end of November, had appointed the slain man’s brother, Mario--a special prosecutor at the attorney general’s office--to find his killer.

In a statement Friday, Mario Ruiz Massieu denied reports that he had fled the country. He said he had left Mexico after the interrogation Thursday for speaking engagements at U.S. universities.

The Mexican official, however, said Ruiz Massieu was headed for Spain when he was arrested during a stopover in the United States.

Mexican television said he was being held at Newark International Airport in New Jersey, but that could not be immediately confirmed.