Mexico is requesting the extradition of the country’s former top security official from the United States.

Genaro Garcia Luna, Mexico’s public security secretary from 2006 to 2012, was arrested in the United States in late 2019 and charged with aiding the Sinaloa Cartel in its efforts to traffic drugs to the United States. He pleaded not guilty to those charges in October, but now Mexico is asking that he be returned to face charges there.

“Extradition processes are long, because of course those who are subject to an extradition request have a right to defend themselves,” said Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard on Tuesday.

He also said that the request was made at the behest of the Mexican Attorney General's Office, and noted that there can’t be an extradition without an arrest warrant.

The Mexican newspaper Reforma reports that there is an arrest warrant for Garcia in Mexico on charges of illicit enrichment.

The request comes in the wake of the return of former Defense Secretary Salvador Cienfuegos, who was arrested and charged in the United States with drug trafficking and money laundering earlier this year. The U.S. charges were dropped, and he has yet to be charged in Mexico.