A former general of Mexico was arrested and charged by US authorities, but later released back to Mexico after being held in prison for one month. He was accused of corruption, in connection to a drug cartel, but that alleged corruption took place in Mexico. October 2020 A former Mexican defense minister has been charged with drug trafficking and laundering money while holding public office, US prosecutors say. General Salvador Cienfuegos Zepeda was arrested at Los Angeles airport. The charges against him included conspiracy to distribute heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana to the US. Prosecutors accuse Mr Cienfuegos of helping the H-2 Cartel - "an extremely violent Mexican drug-trafficking organization" - smuggle drugs into the US. "In exchange for bribe payments, he permitted the H-2 Cartel - a cartel that routinely engaged in wholesale violence, including torture and murder - to operate with impunity in Mexico," prosecutors alleged in a court document. Prosecutors say they have evidence of communications between General Cienfuegos and a senior leader of the H-2 Cartel. They have requested that Mr Cienfuegos be held in detention until his trial, arguing the general poses "a significant risk of flight". Should he be convicted, the former defense minister could face a jail term of ten years or more, prosecutors say. President López Obrador, who was elected on an anti-corruption platform in 2018, has accused his predecessors of running a "narco-government" that allowed corruption. General Cienfuegos, 72, served as minister from 2012 to 2018, under President Enrique Peña Nieto. His role as the most senior member of the armed forces meant he played a key role in Mexico's war on drugs. But there were accusations of complicity between the state and the country's powerful drug cartels throughout Mr Peña Nieto's presidency. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-54552057 This raised an issue of legal jurisdiction, because it is not so clear that General Cienfuegos actually committed a crime in the US. Apparently US prosecutors and a court considered it to be crime against the US, since by helping the drug cartel avoid being caught by Mexican authorities in Mexico, it was in some way allowing and assisting that cartel to move the drugs through Mexico, and ultimately into the US. But shouldn't corruption in Mexico be an issue for Mexican authorities to deal with? Does the fact it could ultimately end up having an effect on the US mean the US has jurisdiction over the matter? Or does a country automatically have jurisdiction over any person who enters their borders, even over a crime that person may have committed that wasn't committed in that country? Brooklyn federal judge drops narco-corruption charges against Mexico's former top defense official November 2020 A Brooklyn federal judge agreed to dismiss narcotics trafficking charges against Mexico's former defense secretary and send him back to his home country - a stunning about-face a mere month after the ex-top official was arrested. The decision came a day after the Department of Justice suddenly announced they were dropping the drug cartel case against Salvador Cienfuegos Zepeda and handing him over to Mexican authorities. Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District Seth Ducharme said Wednesday that "the office stands behind the case," against the ex-top defense official but vaguely added there was a "balancing of interests" between pursuing the charges and keeping U.S.-Mexico relations safe. Federal Judge Carol Bagley Amon called the narco-corruption case "very serious charges against a very significant figure" but gave the green light anyway." The old adage 'a bird in the hand' comes to mind, still I have no reason to doubt the sincerity of the government's decision," Amon said. "There is no suggestion that this application is being made in bad faith." Cienfuegos agreed to be removed from the country after the case was dismissed. His lawyers said he would be out of the country Wednesday on a U.S. government plane surrounded by court marshals. U.S. Attorney General William Barr announced Tuesday the United States would hand Cienfuegos over to the Mexican justice system, without explaining the change of heart. He said the DOJ gave its evidence against Cienfuegos to Mexico, which was pursuing its own investigation. Barr stopped short of saying that Mexico would bring charges, saying only, "he may be investigated and, if appropriate, charged, under Mexican law." But former prosecutors said the decision "reeked", hurt the credibility of prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York and was likely to mean that Cienfuegos would walk free in Mexico. "The whole notion that they're deferring to the criminal justice system of another nation is silly because they’re prosecuting other Mexican officials,” said Brad Simon, a former Brooklyn federal prosecutor. "With a Mexican official who's involved in major drug trafficking, for prosecutors to dismiss the indictment knowing full well he's not going to be brought to justice in Mexico, it doesn't really pass the smell test. It looks bad," said Simon. Cienfuegos was indicted for "taking part in a conspiracy to manufacture cocaine, meth, heroin and marijuana and distribute the drugs in the United States", and laundering the money he made from accepting the bribes. While Cienfuegos is not the first public official from Mexico charged in the United States, he is the most powerful. Also nabbed in the crosshairs of America's war on drugs was Genaro Garcia Luna, the former Mexican secretary of public security, as well as Ivan Reyes Arzate, a former Mexican federal police commander. Both of those men are still being held at Brooklyn's federal jail on narcotics trafficking charges. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crim...op-defense-official/ar-BB1b8hvx?ocid=msedgntp
The point of this thread was legal jurisdiction, with one country arresting people for crimes that are alleged to have taken place in a different country, even though the government of the country where the offense happened did not approve of the arrest. This is a problem for two reasons, because the person accused of the crime may not actually have done it, and because not all alleged crimes are something that everyone can agree is wrong and should be punished. You might even have one country arresting someone for doing something that was not a crime in the country where they did it. It's very concerning, and sets a problematic legal precedent. You might also have citizens thinking twice before they travel to another country, knowing they could be imprisoned for something they did not do in that country.
