Former Mexican Gov. Mario Villanueva Madrid Pleads Not Guilty to US Drug Charges

(May 10) -- A former governor in Mexico appeared in federal court in New York today to face charges that he helped the notorious Juarez drug cartel import hundreds of tons of cocaine into the United States, and then laundered millions of dollars in drug money through offshore accounts at Wall Street banks.

Extradited to the U.S. from Mexico on Sunday night, Mario Ernesto Villanueva Madrid served as the governor of Quintana Roo, a state in the Yucatan Peninsula that includes Cancun, from 1993 to 1999. During that time, U.S. authorities say, he received $19 million in payments from the Juarez cartel in exchange for allowing it to smuggle cocaine through his state and into the U.S.

The former governor of Quintana Roo state, Mario Villanueva, is arrested moments after he was released from the maximum security prison of El Altiplano in Almoloya de Juarez, Mexico, in 2007.

Mario Vazquez de la Torre, Agencia MVT / AP

Mario Ernesto Villanueva Madrid, a former governor in Mexico, here being arrested in 2007, pleaded not guilty in New York on Monday to drug charges.

In U.S. District Court in Manhattan this afternoon, Villanueva pleaded not guilty to all charges.

His lawyer, David Segal, told Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald that his client suffered from numerous health problems, and the court granted a request that Villanueva, who remains held without bail, be treated with oxygen for up to 12 hours a day, The Associated Press reported.

Known in Mexico as "El Chueco," or "The Crooked One," Villanueva is the highest-ranking Mexican official to be extradited to the U.S. on drug charges. He is accused of aiding the Juarez cartel in smuggling 200 tons of Colombian cocaine into Texas and Arizona, often using his state's police force as escorts.

The indictment alleges that he received between $400,000 and $500,000 for each shipment that passed through Quintana Roo, as well as additional millions from the eventual sale of the drugs.

"The seeds of today's violent turmoil in Mexico were first sown over a decade ago by alleged criminals like Mario Villanueva Madrid," U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a press release, adding that Villanueva "turned the Mexican state of Quintana Roo into a virtual narco-state, selling its infrastructure and even its police to one of the world's most dangerous mafia enterprises."

Before his extradition, Villanueva had been serving time in a Mexican prison on money-laundering charges. Upon his release, he was rearrested under a formal request from the U.S. and flown from Mexico to White Plains, N.Y., late Sunday, the U.S. Justice Department said.

Consuelo Marquez, a former broker at Lehman Brothers, helped Villanueva launder nearly $11 million in drug money in accounts that were set up at the now-defunct firm's offices in the U.S. Virgin Islands, U.S. authorities say. Marquez pleaded guilty to money laundering in 2005.

If convicted of the charges against him, Villanueva could face a maximum of life in prison.