Mario Ernesto Villanueva Madrid, the former governor of the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, was extradited from Mexico
NEW YORK—Mario Ernesto Villanueva Madrid, the former governor of the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, was extradited from Mexico on charges that he accepted millions of dollars in bribes from the notorious Juarez Cartel, in exchange for assisting in the importation of over 200 tons of cocaine onto American streets. Villanueva Madrid was also extradited on a second indictment in which he is charged with laundering nearly $19 million in drug proceeds, through accounts at Lehman Brothers in New York and elsewhere, announced Preet Bharara, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and John P. Gilbride, the Special Agent-in-Charge of the New York Field Division of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). Villanueva Madrid was turned over by the Mexican Procuradoria General de la Republica (PGR), or Attorney General’s Office, to agents of the DEA and deputies of the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS). He was flown by DEA Air Wing jet to White Plains, N.Y., and arrived late Sunday....