Top Mexican drug fighter faces charges
Attorney general for state of Nayarit agrees to be transferred to New York to answer to trafficking counts.
SAN DIEGO — The attorney general for the Mexican state of Nayarit appeared Friday in federal court in San Diego, where he agreed to be transferred to New York to face federal drug-trafficking charges.
Edgar Veytia, 46, was arrested on a warrant March 27 as he tried to enter the United States at the Cross Border Xpress — a bridge in Otay Mesa connecting San Diego to the Tijuana Airport. Trips here are common for Veytia, a U.S. citizen who maintains a home in Chula Vista, said Jan Ronis, one of his attorneys.
The indictment out of the Eastern District of New York accuses Veytia of conspiring to manufacture, distribute and import heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana. The indictment does not name alleged coconspirators or an organized crime group.
The U.S. government is seeking to seize up to $250 million in proceeds linked to the alleged crimes.
Veytia, who goes by the nicknames Diablo, Eepp and Lic Veytia, is accused of joining the conspiracy in 2013 — the year he took office as Nayarit’s top law enforcement official.
On Friday, he appeared in a rumpled shirt, brown slacks and ankle restraints, dressed in preparation for his flight under FBI escort to New York. He admitted he was the same person in the New York warrant and is scheduled to appear in court in Brooklyn on Saturday.
Nayarit, a largely agricultural state bordered by scenic beaches on the Pacific, has developed into a resort destination known as the Riviera Nayarit. The coastline is less populated than Mazatlán to the north and Puerto Vallarta to the south.
The state has been the site of increased drug cartel activity, including a gun battle in Tepic, the capital, in February between members of the Beltran-Leyva cartel and the Mexican military in helicopters. The region’s reputed Beltran-Leyva boss was killed, as were seven associates.
Veytia, a close ally of Nayarit’s governor, projected a law-and-order image and once said his state was not “fertile” for organized crime.
He joins a recent slew of Mexican politicians and law enforcement officials being prosecuted in the U.S. on corruption charges.