Mexico City, January 13 (teleSUR-RHC)-- A Mexican federal court ordered on Monday the detention of Maria de los Angeles Pineda Villa, the wife of former Iguala mayor, and charged her with laundering money for a drug cartel.

Pineda Villa is accused of being linked to the Guerreros Unidos drug cartel. This same cartel is suspected of being behind the forcible disappearance of 43 students from the Ayotzinapa teacher training college.

“(...) Her connection was to protect and economically support the criminal group through the acquisition of property, movable property and investing tenure and revenues from drug sales and distribution, mainly in the State of Guerrero and other areas were the cartel operates,” says a statement issued by the Federal Judiciary Council.

The court found that Pineda Villa could not account for over $200,000 in her tax reports from 2009 to 2012, and in the same period of time she received over $900,000 from four bank accounts, linked to the cartel.

The indictment coincides with the account given by witnesses and survivors of the Ayotzinapa case, who claim the mayor and his wife had deep links with the drug cartel. Pineda Villa’s brothers, Mario and Alberto, were killed in 2009 after turning against the head of the Beltrán-Leyva cartel.

Pineda Villa and her husband are believed to be responsible for ordering the disappearance of the 43 students, with the consent of federal authorities.

However, federal authorities say, despite months of investigation, they lack sufficient evidence to charge former Iguala mayor and his wife in the case of the disappeared Ayotzinapa students.

Pineda Villa is also facing charges of committing crimes involving operations with illicit funding and committing crimes against public health.