A Mexican judge is accused of taking a $2 million bribe in exchange for releasing a suspected Canadian drug trafficker from custody in an investigation into a billion-dollar drug trafficking ring, U.S. officials said Thursday.
Luiz Benítez Alcántara, 49, was arrested in Colombia on Sunday and faces a nine-count U.S. grand jury indictment charging him with being an accessory after the fact, the Department of Justice said in a statement.
Benítez was overseeing extradition proceedings in Mexico in 2024 for Canadian citizen Andrew Clark, who was charged in the U.S. with helping run a drug trafficking group allegedly headed by former Canadian Olympic snowboarder Ryan Wedding, the statement said. Benítez released Clark from custody in 2025 after accepting the bribe payment, the statement said.
Clark was arrested days later and taken to the United States, where he faces drug trafficking and murder charges.
U.S. officials said they will request Benítez’s extradition from Colombia. He was traveling to the country for personal reasons, said Ciaran McEvoy, a spokesperson for the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles.
It was not immediately known if Benítez has a lawyer.
“Crooked public officials, no matter where they are, who assist drug traffickers operating here at home will face justice in the United States,” U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche said in the statement.
It's the latest arrest in the U.S. investigation into a multinational drug trafficking network allegedly run by Wedding, who became a top FBI fugitive accused of moving cocaine from Latin America into the United States and orchestrating several killings. Wedding was arrested in Mexico earlier this year and flown to California, where he pleaded not guilty to murder and drug charges.
Dozens of people have been arrested in connection with the alleged drug network and authorities seized large volumes of drugs, weapons and cash, as well as millions of dollars worth of automobiles, motorcycles, artwork and jewelry in its investigation.
U.S. authorities have said Clark was second-in-command in the network that shipped cocaine from Mexico to Los Angeles for storage in stash houses until it could be transported to Canada using long-haul semi-trucks. Wedding and Clark are both charged with ordering killings related to the drug trade.
Clark’s attorney, Matthew Lombard, did not immediately respond to messages Thursday.
FILE - An FBI seal is displayed on a podium before a news conference at the field office in Portland, Ore., Jan. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane, File)
FILE - United States Attorney Martin Estrada, right at podium, joined by federal, local and international officials, announces federal charges and arrests of alleged members of a transnational drug trafficking operation during a news conference at the FBI offices in Los Angeles on Oct. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)
Florida carried out a record-tying 19th execution of the year in an unusual instance of three states administering the death penalty on the same day.
Jesse Guardado was pronounced dead at 6:13 p.m. following a three-drug injection at a state prison in Starke. He had pleaded guilty to fatally stabbing 75-year-old Jackie Malone inside her Walton County home in 2004 before stealing her jewelry box, $80 and other valuables to buy drugs. The woman had helped him get a job and housing.
Hours earlier, Indiana executed a man for killing two children in a house fire in 2010, and in Alabama, a man received the last lethal injection of the day for his conviction in the killing of an elderly man and woman in a home robbery.
The executions were taking place the same day California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced he will commute all 548 death sentences in his state, saying he believes “state-sanctioned killing is incompatible with California’s values."
That was in sharp contrast to Florida's outgoing governor, Republican Ron DeSantis, who has made aggressive use of the death penalty like few other governors. His state has carried out more than half of the 35 executions so far this year in the U.S., where capital punishment has come under renewed scrutiny following Tennessee's failed execution of Christa Pike in September.
It is the second time since August that three states had conducted executions on a single day, although it remains unusual. Prior to this year, the last time it happened was 2010.
Guardado, 64, was already strapped to a gurney with an IV in his arm when the death chamber curtain went up promptly at 6:00 p.m. Asked if he had a last statement, he replied, “I would like to once again apologize for the pain and suffering I’ve caused to the victim’s family and my own family as well.”
The drugs began flowing immediately afterward. About a minute later, Guardado began breathing heavily, followed by some sputtering and twitching. As the twitching subsided, a warden shook Guardado and shouted his name, but got no response. A medic soon after pronounced him dead.
DeSantis, who leaves office in January, has said he wants to bring justice to victims' families who have often waited decades for death sentences to be carried out. He signed the death warrants that led to a state record of 19 executions in 2025. The state will set a new record if two more executions are carried out as planned later this year.
The victim’s son, Patrick Malone, spoke briefly to media witnesses after the execution. Instead of discussing his mother or her murder, he questioned those who oppose the death penalty.
“Do such people ever think about what happened to the victim or consider the unending aftermath the victim’s family endures and relives every time that terrible event comes up?” Malone said.
In neighboring Alabama, Michael Taylor, 54, received a lethal injection and was pronounced dead at 6:10 p.m. local time.
The execution got underway shortly before 6 p.m. as Taylor replied “no sir” when asked if he had any final words. He appeared to mouth “thank you” toward his attorneys seated in the witness room. Taylor’s spiritual adviser approached and prayed with him, and he then closed his eyes, never opening them again.
In 1991, Taylor, then 19, fatally beat two people, ages 83 and 79, with a metal bar during a robbery in their Gadsden, Alabama, home. Police arrested him with the victims’ Cadillac an hour away in Birmingham.
Death penalty opponents had urged Republican Gov. Kay Ivey to reduce Taylor’s sentence to life in prison, noting his age and immaturity at the time. She declined.
Ivey issued a statement immediately afterward calling his actions “reprehensible” and saying, “35 years ago yesterday, Ivan and Lucille Moore kindly opened their home to Michael Taylor. Mr. Taylor repaid the Moores by beating them to death with a metal bar, all to rob them for money to buy clothing and jewelry.”
The state changed the execution method after a judge declared a nitrogen gas method unconstitutional. Taylor’s attorneys had objected to the last-minute switch to lethal injection since he selected nitrogen gas as his method years ago, but a judge ruled against Taylor.
In Indiana, Jeffrey Weisheit, 50, was pronounced dead at 12:45 a.m. at the state prison in Michigan City, said Noelle Russell, spokesperson at the Department of Correction. He had no final words.
Weisheit had publicly acknowledged killing his girlfriend’s two children in a house fire in the Evansville area in 2010 but had hoped Gov. Mike Braun would grant clemency and change his sentence to life in prison. Braun declined.
Lawyers failed to persuade Braun, a Republican, to allow Weisheit to undergo brain scans in an effort to reinforce their argument that he has a history of head injuries and mental health problems that should prevent execution.
Weisheit's last objection centered on the state's planned use of lethal drugs purchased from a pharmacy that is facing a disciplinary hearing next week at the Indiana Pharmacy Board. The Indiana Supreme Court declined to intervene Wednesday night, though two of the five justices wanted a 10-day stay for more information about the drugs' expiration and storage.
The execution provided “long-awaited justice for Alyssa Lynch and her brother Caleb, two innocent children whose lives were stolen in an act of unspeakable cruelty," Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita said.
Americans have long been divided over the death penalty, with nearly half of states banning capital punishment outright and just a handful of others carrying out most of the nation’s executions each year.
This story has been updated to correct that Christa Pike's failed execution was in September, not October.
Fischer reported from Starke, Florida, and Chandler from Montgomery, Alabama. Associated Press reporter Ed White contributed from Detroit.
FILE - Law enforcement vehicles sit parked outside the Florida state prison in Starke, Fla., on July 28, 2026. (AP Photo/David Fischer, File)
The entrance to W.C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Ala., is shown on Oct. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Kim Chandler) Photo taken with a smartphone.
This photo provided by the Indiana Department of Correction shows Jeffrey Weisheit. The Indiana Parole Board is recommending that the death penalty remain in place for Weisheit who killed two children in a house fire.(Indiana Department of Correction via AP)
This undated photo provided by the Alabama Department of Corrections on Thursday, Nov. 5, 2026, shows Michael Taylor. (Alabama Department of Corrections via AP)
