Ex-Sinaloa State Security Official Arrested in US Drug Case (1)

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 appeared in a Manhattan federal court Friday for a five-minute hearing in which he pleaded not guilty to three felonies.

Merida Sanchez was charged last month along with Ruben Rocha Moya, 76, and eight other current and former officials with a variety of crimes. He’s apparently the first official to be arrested in the case.

The former ...