NEW YORK — A former Mexican intelligence unit commander who was a main point of contact for intelligence sharing between U.S. agencies and Mexican federal police pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking charges in federal court in New York on Friday.
Authorities say Ivan Reyes Arzate received thousands of dollars in bribes in exchange for assisting Mexican cartels to ship cocaine to the United States.
Federal prosecutors say one of the cartels Arzate assisted, El Seguimiento 39, is associated with the Sinaloa cartel, whose former leader is Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman. Arzate also allegedly provided sensitive law enforcement information in the mid-2000s to the Beltran Leyva Organization, which was then a faction of Guzman’s cartel.
Arzate, 57, was arraigned in Brooklyn federal court before Magistrate Judge Cheryl Pollak, who ordered him held without bail.
