Ebrard said on Twitter that he had been informed by the US ambassador to Mexico, Christopher Landau, that Cienfuegos, who was defense chief from 2012-2018, was detained at Los Angeles airport.

"The consul in Los Angeles will inform me of the charges in the next few hours. We will offer the consular assistance to which he is entitled."

Cienfuegos headed the defense ministry under former president Enrique Pena Nieto.

He is the second former Mexican minister who is detained in the United States.

Ex-public security minister Genaro Garcia Luna was arrested in Texas in December 2019 on charges of taking huge bribes to allow the notorious Sinaloa cartel to ship drugs into the US.