Arrests within the Mexican Assistant Attorney General's Office on Organized Crime are only the latest; Drug traffickers may also have informants in Interpol and the US Embassy
by Agencias and La Jornada On Line
translation and notes by Kristin Bricker
Mexico City - The Federal Attorney General's office (PGR in its Spanish initials) announced the detention of two high-ranking officials from the Assistant Attorney General's Office for the Specialized Investigation of Organized Crime (SIEDO in its Spanish initials) for alleged connections with with the Beltrán Leyva brothers' criminal organization, which paid them up to USD$400,000 monthly.
The head of SIEDO, Marisela Morales Ibáñez, stated that Fernando Rivera Hernández was handed over to the Federal Prosecutor's Office. Rivera Hernández acted as deputy director of Intelligence in SIEDO's Technical Coordinating Body.
Rivera Hernández is accused of receiving "large sums of money" on behalf of the Beltrán Leyva brothers. On August 4 he was held for 40 days under pre-trail detention following a deposition from a protected witness. He was then held for an additional 30 days.
Morales Ibáñez said that on October 10 criminal proceedings were initiated against Fernando Rivera for crimes related to organized crime and against the public health,* in the category of conspiracy to encourage the possibility of committing those crimes. The 9th Criminal Court in Jalisco issued an arrest warrant for him on October 11. A few days later he was indicted and formally imprisoned.
Miguel Colorado González, SIEDO's technical coordinator, was also targeted by the criminal proceedings. Both were providing information about operations that the Federal Investigation Agency (AFI in its Spanish initials) would carry out against drug trafficking, stated Morales Ibáñez in the press conference.
Both ex-officials are being detained in the Puente Grande maximum security prison in Jalisco, where Alfredo Beltrán Leyva, aka El Mochomo, is also being held. Alfredo Beltrán is one of the leaders of the cartel that Arturo Beltrán runs. Arturo Beltrán is currently at large.
Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora stated that between July and now, 35 Mexican Prosecutor's Office agents have been detained for receiving bribes of between $150,00 and $450,000 USD monthly, according to his data.
The process of purging and investigating personnel will continue, said Medina Mora. Likewise, the assistant attorney general said that the investigations against SIEDO agents began in 2004, "as a result of thwarted operations and a formal deposition that stated that there were public servants who were passing information to the Sinaloa cartel."
The arrests of more public servants from this institution are expected. The arrests began this past July. The public servants belong to a wide network of corruption within the SIEDO. The investigations have not concluded, said Morales.
It was unofficially said that the government will investigate a series of statements which indicate that drug traffickers have informants in Interpol and the United States Embassy in Mexico.
Notes:
* Mexico has a highly controversial track for crimes related to organized crime. This track is different from the standard criminal track: organized crime suspects have fewer rights, can be held incomunicado for longer periods of time, and face longer prison sentences. Crimes against public health also fall under the organized crime rubric.
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More on Interpol and Embassy Infiltration
Submitted November 2, 2008 - 9:28 pm by Kristin BrickerInterpol agent passed information to Beltrán-Leyva cartel in Mexico
One of the most dangerous drug cartels in the world has infiltrated the US Embassy in Mexico and America's top anti-trafficking agency, it emerged last night.
A captured informant codenamed Felipe admitted to Mexican prosecutors that he used his job as an Interpol agent working at the US Embassy in Mexico City and at the international airport in the city to feed classified information about anti-drug operations to the feared Beltrán-Leyva cartel.
The revelation came as prosecutors also admitted that two staff in the Mexican Attorney-General's Office for Organised Crime - a government unit that fights the drug mafia — had been found to have been in the pockets of the cartel for four years, as were at least three federal policemen with inside information on surveillance targets and potential raids. Each were paid between $150,000 (£97,000) and $450,000 a month by the cartel.
It was the worst known case of law enforcement in Mexico being compromised by drug lords since the arrest in 1997 of General Jesús Gutiérrez Rebollo, the head of the country's anti-drug agency, who was convicted of assisting Amado Carrillo, a kingpin.
“This doesn't say much for US security — it's as embarrassing as hell for this to come out and I suspect heads will roll within the DEA [Drug Enforcement Administration],” said Bruce Bagley, an expert in Latin American drug trafficking, from the University of Miami in Florida.
The scandal came five days after Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, travelled to Mexico City to discuss the $400 million Mérida Initiative, a package to help Mexican and Central American law enforcement agencies to fight organised drug crime. “We've already achieved an outstanding level of co-operation in our efforts to fight drug trafficking and organised crime... the United States considers this important initiative and its implementation an urgent task,” she said.
President Calderón had appealed for the money, which will help to fund resources such as helicopters and surveillance aircraft, to be speeded up as Mexico struggles against a surge in drug violence.
The money will be filtered through the US Embassy in Mexico City.
The Beltrán-Leyva cartel is an offshoot of the Sinaloa cartel, the largest Mexican drug trafficking confederation, and has engaged in a bloody turf war as it strives for supremacy.
“It's a very big deal that they got inside the embassy and the DEA. The Beltrán-Leyva cartel has got a serious leg-up by doing this and while we don't know how much information they got, in this war knowledge is power,” Dr Bagley said. “These guys are an emerging player and they have to be taken seriously.”
Despite the corruption Mexico continues to capture top smugglers. On Saturday Eduardo Arellano Félix was arrested after a shootout in Tijuana. He had allegedly been running the Arellano Félix cartel with his sister.