DEA Helping Mexico Search for Missing State Governor

U.S. anti-narcotics agents have joined Mexican authorities in the search for a Mexican state governor who disappeared days before he faced possible arrest for alleged ties to drug traffickers, the Drug Enforcement Administration said Thursday.

But DEA officials denied that they were engaged in any criminal investigation of Quintana Roo state Gov. Mario Villanueva, noting that he had not been charged with any crime in the United States.

“The governor is being sought by Mexican authorities, and he is not under indictment in the United States,” a DEA spokesman said.

“We are working jointly with the Mexican government and our Mexican police counterparts to assist them in locating the governor,” the spokesman added.

The governor, a member of Mexico’s ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), is being investigated by Mexican authorities for allegedly allowing drug cartels to use his state as a transit point for cocaine flowing to the United States from South America.

His six-year term as Quintana Roo governor ends Monday, along with his criminal immunity. Mexican authorities said they cannot issue an arrest warrant until then.

U.S. officials have said his state in the Yucatan Peninsula, known for the Caribbean resort Cancun, became a major route for drug trafficking during Villanueva’s term.

Villanueva disappeared Saturday and failed to show up this week as scheduled for questioning in Mexico City.

Villanueva’s lawyer said his client fears he will be arrested and subjected to an unfair trial.