Former Sinaloa State Security Official Arrested in US Drug Case

A former top security official for the Mexican state of Sinaloa is in US custody, facing charges over his alleged ties to a broad conspiracy to traffic illegal drugs into the US.

Gerardo Merida Sanchez, 66, Sinaloa’s former Minister of Public Security is scheduled to appear in federal court in Manhattan Friday. He was arrested May 11 and appeared briefly in a court in Tucson, Arizona, before being sent to New York, according to court records. He’s being held in the federal lockup in Brooklyn, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.