Authorities arrested Mexico's former defense minister in Los Angeles on Thursday night for allegedly engaging in a wide-ranging opium and cocaine distribution plot.

Federal prosecutors claimed the ex-defense minister exploited his role in return for bribery to support an infamous Mexican drug cartel.

General Salvador Cienfuegos, who commanded Mexico's military under former President Enrique Peña Nieto, has been the highest-ranking army officer charged with drug trafficking.

Officials unsealed his indictment on Friday since authorities arrested Cienfuegos at Los Angeles airport. U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Christopher Landau informed Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard over Mexico's former defense minister's detention.

Cienfuegos, known as "El Padrino," or the godfather, is suspected of supporting the H-2 drug cartel by threatening its competitors for military intervention.

The latest exposure unveiled the organization's representatives to other crooked Mexican politicians, among other activities, and advising U.S. inquiries.

Will he be detained in Los Angeles?

Cienfuegos turned up on Friday in Los Angeles before the U.S. Magistrate Judge Alexander F. MacKinnon via video conference.

According to Bloomberg, he talked to an interpreter from Spain. Cienfuegos decided to be detained before a custody trial Tuesday in a federal prison in Los Angeles.

Defense attorney Duane Lyons said he would apply at the point for his client to be free on bond. In a filing, U.S. lawyers demanded that Cienfuegos be held without parole, alleging that he represents a potential flight danger.

Three of the drug-trafficking offenses he faces bear 10-year mandatory penalties. If Cienfuegos were to leave the U.S. after bail was issued, it would be "very challenging" to arrest him in Mexico.

In a court filing, the U.S. claimed that this would be possible "if he were protected by the H-2 Cartel and prominent former government officials."

In a memo urging a judge to refuse bail, Cienfuegos "prioritized his greed over his sworn duties as a public official. He ensured the continued success and protection of one of the most lethal drug-dealing groups in Mexico," prosecutor Michael Robotti said.

"He has no respect for public authority or the rule of law," he said.

Blackberry messages

According to investigators, the U.S. confiscated thousands of BlackBerry Messenger messages.

The communications showed that Cienfuegos assisted the H-2 Cartel in many areas, including identifying marine transport for its cocaine exports. It also exposed cartel figures to other Mexican government officials eager to support the gang in return for bribes.

Cienfuegos had alerted the cartel about pending U.S. law enforcement inquiries into the organization and the usage of cooperating witnesses and informants.

The situation eventually culminated in a cartel associate's death because the organization mistakenly thought the person was assisting American law enforcement, prosecutors said.

Consequently, according to the U.S., the cartel could extend its influence to Mazatlan, Mexico, and through the Mexican state of Sinaloa.

Without any involvement from the Mexican forces, the cartel was still free to operate and could bring thousands of kilos of cocaine, opium, methamphetamine, and marijuana into the U.S., prosecutors stated.

Disappointing situation

The group was led by Juan Patron Sanchez at the time of Cienfuegos' association with the H-2 Cartel, prosecutors said. Patron Sanchez died in a gunfight with Mexican military forces in 2017.

The H-2 Cartel is a precursor to the Beltran Leyva group, which once existed in the Mexican states of Nayarit and Sinaloa and was headed by Hector Beltran Leyva.

"It's a very sad situation that a former defense secretary is detained and accused of narco trafficking links," Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said during his morning press conference Friday. He noted that the armed forces "are pillars of the Mexican state."

Cienfuegos, who served as defense secretary from 2012-2018, seldom flew to the U.S., investigators claimed. He last visited the country in March 2019, five months before the Brooklyn grand jury charged him.

Cienfuegos is facing four charges related to money laundering and the manufacture and distribution of cocaine, heroin, and other illegal drugs in the U.S.

Former Attorney General of Nayarit Edgar Veytia was also sentenced to 20 years in U.S. prison in a similar prosecution in September 2019.

He pled guilty to multinational opium, cocaine, methamphetamine, and drug trafficking, and a delivery scheme involving the H-2 cartel in federal court in Brooklyn.

The U.S. said Veytia had used his role to help and endorse cocaine trafficking groups in Mexico as the highest law enforcement officer in his area.

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