Mexican authorities detained former Chihuahua governor Cesar Duarte on Monday in a new money-laundering case, according to the attorney general’s office. The arrest adds another chapter to a long-running legal saga involving the ex-official.
Prosecutors say Duarte took part in a scheme that moved public money through illicit channels while he served as governor of the northern border state. Investigators accuse him of helping redirect more than 96 million pesos between 2011 and 2014, a period in which he belonged to the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).
Local media reported that Duarte was on parole in Chihuahua when police detained him. He is expected to be transferred to a maximum-security facility in the State of Mexico.
This is not the first time Duarte faces criminal proceedings. U.S. authorities extradited him to Mexico in June 2022 after he spent nearly two years in custody in Miami. That case involved embezzlement charges, which he has consistently rejected. Washington later asked Mexico for permission to pursue additional charges beyond the original allegations.
Duarte maintains he has done nothing illegal.