Wife of Mayor of Mexican City where 43 Students Were Murdered Sent to Federal Prison

Maria de los Angeles Pineda was transferred to federal prison in western Mexico

The wife of the former mayor of the Mexican city where 43 students went missing has been charged with organised crime and money laundering.

Maria de los Angeles Pineda was transferred to a high security prison to await trial.

She had brothers in a local drug gang that operated in the city, Iguala, in the state of Guerrero, prosecutors say.

They said police handed the students over to the drug gang who then killed them and burnt the bodies.

It is unclear whether the charges against Maria Pineda are related to the students' disappearance.

They went missing in September after clashes with police.

Their disappearance sparked nationwide protests and has rocked the government of President Enrique Pena Nieto.

Prosecutors said that members of the drug gang linked to Maria Pineda had confessed that her husband, ex-mayor Jose Luis Abarca, had ordered the police to crack down on the students to stop them disrupting an event his wife was speaking at.

However a local news magazine said the event was over by the time the students arrived in the town.

The students vanished after the police attacked their buses leaving six people dead.

Investigators said members of the drug gang told them the police had delivered the young men to them.

They then took them to a local landfill, killed them and burned the bodies.

Only one of the students has been positively identified from the charred remains.

Maria Pineda and her husband Jose Abarca were arrested in November in Mexico City.

He was charged with organised crime, kidnapping and murder for events before the disappearance of the students.