Mexico charges mayor's wife with organised crime, unclear if linked to missing students

The wife of a Mexican mayor whose police force turned 43 students over to a drug gang that allegedly killed them has been charged with organised crime and money laundering. [caption id=“attachment_1745255” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  A member of the Federal Police patrols atop a vehicle in downtown Iguala, Mexico. Reuters[/caption] Maria de los Angeles Pineda is the wife of Jose Luis Abarca, the former mayor of Iguala, a city in southern Guerrero state. Pineda’s brothers were leading members of the Guerreros Unidos drug gang, according to prosecutors. Federal prosecutor Tomas Zeron said Monday that Pineda has been charged with organized crime related to drug trafficking, and use of illicit funds. Abarca and Pineda were arrested Nov. 4 in Mexico City. Abarca was charged with organized crime, kidnapping and homicide in November, for events previous to the students’ disappearance. Pineda had been held under a form of house arrest, but has now been transferred to a federal prison. It is unclear if the charges against her were related to the students’ disappearance. Video footage showed a grim-faced, stolid Pineda being escorted aboard a truck and then a plane as she was transferred to prison. Abarca’s police force allegedly worked hand-in-glove with the Guerreros Unidos gang. When students from a rural teacher’s college went to Iguala to hijack buses on Sept. 26, Iguala police detained them and turned them over to the gang, which then allegedly killed them and burned their bodies. Only one of the students has been identified from charred bits of bone. AP