A district judge from Mexico City has been arrested in Colombia after being accused of taking a US $2 million bribe to help free a suspected Canadian drug trafficker, the US Department of Justice says. Luis Benítez Alcántara, 49, was arrested on Nov. 1 and faces extradition proceedings to the United States. The US is seeking to bring nine charges against him, with a maximum penalty of up to 15 years in prison for each count if convicted. US prosecutors say Benítez took the money from drug traffickers and then issued rulings that helped a high-ranking member of a transnational criminal organization secure his release. The bribery payment allegedly enabled the trafficker’s release from custody in February 2025. The suspect in the underlying case is Andrew Clark, 36, a Canadian drug trafficker and second-in-command to Ryan James Wedding, a former Canadian Olympic snowboarder. Clark was arrested in Mexico in October 2024 on US drug trafficking, murder and attempted murder charges, in which Wedding was also named. US officials later requested Wedding’s extradition, and Clark was eventually re-arrested days after the alleged judge’s rulings. Benítez is described by the US as the first Mexican federal judge indicted by the United States. Prosecutors accuse him of being an accomplice, including in drug trafficking and homicide related offences tied to the criminal enterprise. The judge’s alleged conduct is tied to a US grand jury indictment charging him with being an accessory after the fact in nine counts. In addition to seeking extradition, the US says it has already moved to prosecute Clark in the United States, where he faces nine charges including distributing and possessing cocaine and methamphetamine, engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise, homicide related to a criminal enterprise, attempted homicide related to a criminal enterprise, and drug trafficking offences. The latest status is that Benítez is detained in connection with the extradition request as the nine US charges proceed.