The attorney general for the Mexican state of Nayarit was arrested in San Diego Monday on a New York arrest warrant accusing him of drug trafficking.
Edgar Veytia was arrested at the Cross Border Xpress, the bridge connecting San Diego to the Tijuana Airport, said U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman Ralph DeSio.
Veytia, 46, is the attorney general in Nayarit, the tropical region between Mazatlán and Puerto Vallarta. Its stretch of Pacific coastline has become a popular resort destination known as Riviera Nayarit.
Veytia is charged with conspiring to manufacture, distribute and import heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana, according to the indictment filed this month in the Eastern District of New York.
Veytia, also known as “Diablo,” “Eepp,” and “Lic Veytia,” participated in the conspiracy from 2013 to February of this year, the indictment states.
The indictment does not detail the allegations nor name co-conspirators. It also does not address Veytia’s prominent prosecutorial role in Mexico.
He was arraigned in San Diego federal court Tuesday.
The investigation was a collaboration of the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration and Homeland Security Investigations, said San Diego FBI spokesman Davene Butler. She declined to comment on the case further.
