Ex-Official Arrested in Mexico
After a two-year manhunt, Mexican federal police Thursday night arrested a former governor suspected of protecting drug smugglers during his term.
Mexico’s attorney general said investigators from his office arrested former Quintana Roo state Gov. Mario Villanueva while he was traveling in a car in the Caribbean resort of Cancun with two other people, including a former state judicial police officer, Manuel Jesus Kan.
Villanueva did not resist arrest, said Atty. Gen. Rafael Macedo de la Concha. Villanueva had frequently moved in and out of the country during his two years on the run, entering through Mexico’s southern border, Macedo said .
He said Villanueva would be taken to Mexico’s highest-security prison outside Mexico City.
Villanueva faces drug-smuggling and organized-crime charges.
The main accusation against him is that he used police to help protect drug smugglers of the Juarez drug-smuggling organization. Villanueva has denied the allegations.
After being questioned by Mexico’s anti-drug czar and being summoned for further testimony, Villanueva disappeared in March 1999, just days before the end of his term as governor of Quintana Roo state, where Cancun is located.
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.
