Corruption In Mexico—Presidential Detained Guard In Drug Case
12/28/2008
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It's another day at the office for corruption-riddled Mexico...
Mexico's drug corruption scandals reached into the presidential guard as authorities identified one officer as a possible spy for the country's violent drug cartels.

An official of the federal prosecutor's office who was not authorized to be quoted by name identified Arturo Gonzalez Rodriguez on Saturday as an army major who was assigned to the unit that guards the president. Prosecutors announced on Friday that Gonzalez Rodriguez had been placed under hour arrest for 40 days while he is investigated.

The prosecution official said there are allegations that the officer passed information to the Beltran Leyva drug cartel in exchange for payments of as much as $100,000.

The official could not confirm what type of information the major purportedly passed to drug traffickers, but the newspaper El Universal cited testimony indicating that Gonzalez Rodriguez may have informed traffickers about the activities of President Felipe Calderon. [Mexico detains presidential guard in drug case, December 27, 2008]

In October, several narco spies were found in the Attorney General's organized crime unit: Officials Say Drug Cartels Infiltrated Mexican Law Unit, so it's not unusual to find penetration at the highest levels.

Meanwhile the Merida Initiative, the Bush program to relieve American taxpayers (who now have over $10.5 trillion on the national credit card) of $1.4 billion to help out Mexico with its interior policing, is going full speed ahead.

In other Mexico crime news, the bad guys are going traditional: Armed gang holds up train in Mexico, robs freight.

A gang of about 20 men armed with assault rifles robbed a train in the western Mexican state of Michoacan and carted off some of its freight, the state prosecutor's office said Saturday.

The gang parked a pickup truck across the tracks on Friday, forcing the train to stop.

The assailants then threatened the train's crew and opened some of the freight containers it was carrying.

Evidently the thugs were after drums of pseudoephedrine, a chemical used in the illegal manufacture of methamphetamines, to keep their narco-business supplied.
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