Judge Rules U.S. Can Keep All Funds Banked by Mexican

A federal judge has ruled that the U.S. government is entitled to keep all $9 million it seized from a Texas bank account once held by former Mexican Deputy Atty. Gen. Mario Ruiz Massieu because the money came from drug-trafficking bribes.

The decision, unveiled in court documents Monday, reverses a March jury verdict in which Ruiz Massieu was allowed to retain $1.1 million of the cash.

U.S. District Judge Nancy Atlas, who presided over the trial, said the jury found that Ruiz Massieu got the money from drug traffickers, and she said he therefore must forfeit all of it. She said there is no proof that any of the money had come from his family or bonuses paid by the Mexican government, as he claimed.

Further, Atlas said federal prosecutors proved that Ruiz Massieu was part of a massive drug-trafficking conspiracy that “included certain officials within the PGR [Mexican attorney general’s office]. Co-conspirators, Atlas said, included drug trafficker Juan Garcia Abrego.

Ruiz Massieu was arrested in March 1995 after he left Mexico amid allegations he was involved in a cover-up in the killing of his brother, a ruling-party official.