U.S. federal law enforcement officers extradited a former Mexican Customs agent who is wanted in his home country on organized crime charges.
The incident took place last weekend, when U.S. federal agents walked 46-year-old Carlos Eugenio Benitez Orta to the middle of one of the international bridges that connects Matamoros with Brownsville, Texas. There, officials turned him over to Mexican federal agents who took him into custody and then to a federal detention center in Mexico State, where he is awaiting various court hearings in connection with an ongoing corruption investigation involving his role as a top official with Mexico’s Customs Service.
Information obtained by Breitbart Texas revealed that Benitez Orta was one of the highest-ranking officers within Mexico’s Customs office in the border city of Matamoros. While Mexican authorities have not released details on the case, Matamoros has a long history of being a hub for the illegal smuggling of fuel products.
Breitbart Texas has also reported widely on the widespread corruption within both the immigration and customs offices in Matamoros, which have had a close working relationship with Mexico’s Gulf Cartel, one of the six criminal organizations labeled as foreign terrorist groups by the U.S. government.
The extradition comes at a time of great tension within Mexico and the U.S. government over the pressure by the Trump administration to eradicate drug cartels and to go after Mexican politicians and public officials who have enabled them and protected them. One of the main cases involves the current governor of Sinaloa, Ruben Rocha Moya, and nine of his closest allies who are under a U.S. indictment for drug trafficking conspiracy.
Currently, Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum has publicly taken a confrontational stance, claiming that there is no evidence of wrongdoing against Rocha Moya, who is from the same political party, MORENA, and that the case against him is politically based.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart News Foundation. He co-founded Breitbart News Foundation’s Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com.
Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart News Foundation’s Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com.