The former police chief in the Gulf coast port of Veracruz was among 11 people arrested for the kidnapping of Mexican customs official Francisco Serrano Aramoni, who remains missing and is feared dead.
Jose Osiris Cruz was detained Wednesday by military police, the Mexican Attorney General’s Office said.
A Veracruz state judge issued warrants for the arrest of Cruz and 10 other suspects on charges of racketeering, drug trafficking and illegal weapons possession, AG office spokesman Ricardo Celso Najera said.
Serrano, the head of the customs office in Veracruz, was driving home from work the night of June 1 when another vehicle rammed his vehicle and forced him to stop. Armed assailants then grabbed the official and drove away.
Since taking office in December 2006, President Felipe Calderon has deployed more than 50,000 soldiers and 20,000 federal police officers across Mexico in a bid to crush the country’s powerful drug cartels.
The operation has failed to put a dent in the violence due, according to experts, to the cartels’ ability to buy off police and even high-ranking prosecutors.
Showing posts with label Mexico. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mexico. Show all posts
Friday, September 18, 2009
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Several Mexican Officers Charged with Homicide
CABO SAN LUCAS, Mexico
Five Mexican police officers have been charged with homicide and other counts for the death of an Oregon man in a Mexican jail cell last August.
Regional Deputy Attorney General Omar Barajas says the five municipal officers were charged Wednesday with homicide and abuse of power. A sixth officer, the commander of the jail, was released after investigators determined he was not involved.
Sam Botner, 38, of Yoncalla, Ore, was arrested on Aug. 27 while vacationing in the resort of San Jose del Cabo at the southern tip of Mexico's Baja Peninsula.
San Jose del Cabo and Cabo San Lucas are about 20 miles apart but fall under the same "municipio," or municipal jurisdiction.
Prosecutors say a surveillance video shows officers beating Botner, who was vacationing there with his wife Kym after he returned from a commercial fishing trip in Alaska.
An autopsy found traces of marijuana, cocaine and methamphetamine in his system. His wife said he resisted arrest but prosecutors said police still have a duty to protect people in custody.
Police spokesman Jorge Castaneda said the five could face 10 years or more in jail.
Under remnants of the old Napoleonic Code there is no presumption of innocence in Mexico or many other Latin American countries, and defendants must prove their innocence.
Castaneda said a judge has 72 hours to decide the fate of the officers charged, although the process can take longer.
Lawyers will submit written briefs, and a judge likely will decide Monday or Tuesday.
Jury trials are relatively rare in Mexico.
Castaneda said an autopsy concluded that Botner died of asphyxiation but prosecutors say he was beaten in jail.
His wife, Kym said that police were called after her husband got into an argument with a man at a resort. She said she was told the morning after her husband's arrest that he had died.
"I think the officers need to go to prison but I forgive them as people," Botner's brother, Paul, told The Oregonian. "I have no hatred for them."
http://www.kgw.com/news-local/stories/kgw_090408_news_botner_death_mexico.48d5cb84.html
Five Mexican police officers have been charged with homicide and other counts for the death of an Oregon man in a Mexican jail cell last August.
Regional Deputy Attorney General Omar Barajas says the five municipal officers were charged Wednesday with homicide and abuse of power. A sixth officer, the commander of the jail, was released after investigators determined he was not involved.
Sam Botner, 38, of Yoncalla, Ore, was arrested on Aug. 27 while vacationing in the resort of San Jose del Cabo at the southern tip of Mexico's Baja Peninsula.
San Jose del Cabo and Cabo San Lucas are about 20 miles apart but fall under the same "municipio," or municipal jurisdiction.
Prosecutors say a surveillance video shows officers beating Botner, who was vacationing there with his wife Kym after he returned from a commercial fishing trip in Alaska.
An autopsy found traces of marijuana, cocaine and methamphetamine in his system. His wife said he resisted arrest but prosecutors said police still have a duty to protect people in custody.
Police spokesman Jorge Castaneda said the five could face 10 years or more in jail.
Under remnants of the old Napoleonic Code there is no presumption of innocence in Mexico or many other Latin American countries, and defendants must prove their innocence.
Castaneda said a judge has 72 hours to decide the fate of the officers charged, although the process can take longer.
Lawyers will submit written briefs, and a judge likely will decide Monday or Tuesday.
Jury trials are relatively rare in Mexico.
Castaneda said an autopsy concluded that Botner died of asphyxiation but prosecutors say he was beaten in jail.
His wife, Kym said that police were called after her husband got into an argument with a man at a resort. She said she was told the morning after her husband's arrest that he had died.
"I think the officers need to go to prison but I forgive them as people," Botner's brother, Paul, told The Oregonian. "I have no hatred for them."
http://www.kgw.com/news-local/stories/kgw_090408_news_botner_death_mexico.48d5cb84.html
Friday, August 08, 2008
Two California Officers Arrested in Tijuana
TIJUANA
Two Northern California police officers could face up to 20 years in a Mexican prison after being caught in Tijuana with firearms and about 6,000 rounds of ammunition, authorities said.
The officers, identified as Hermonegenes Llanos and Jorge Luis Matos, were arrested Friday afternoon by Mexican authorities. Both are from the Monterey area.
Llanos is a patrol officer and eight-year veteran of the Soledad Police Department in Monterey County. Police Chief Richard Cox confirmed the arrest yesterday and said an internal affairs probe is under way.
Matos was identified as a civilian police sergeant at the Presidio of Monterey, an Army installation.
A U.S. consular official in Tijuana, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case, said the officers could face a variety of charges, most of them involving the possession of weapons and equipment restricted under Mexican law to military use.
The official said the charges carry penalties ranging from three to 20 years in prison.
Lauren Mack, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, said Llanos and Matos were in custody at the La Mesa Penitentiary in Tijuana. However, the consular official said a Mexican federal judge ordered Llanos released on bail yesterday.
The two officers had just crossed the border at the San Ysidro port of entry when their SUV was pulled over by Mexican customs officers for a random inspection, Mack said.
The officers found two handguns and “well over 5,000 rounds of ammo” in the vehicle, one official said. A later estimate put the ammunition at 6,000 rounds, Mack said.
Two Northern California police officers could face up to 20 years in a Mexican prison after being caught in Tijuana with firearms and about 6,000 rounds of ammunition, authorities said.
The officers, identified as Hermonegenes Llanos and Jorge Luis Matos, were arrested Friday afternoon by Mexican authorities. Both are from the Monterey area.
Llanos is a patrol officer and eight-year veteran of the Soledad Police Department in Monterey County. Police Chief Richard Cox confirmed the arrest yesterday and said an internal affairs probe is under way.
Matos was identified as a civilian police sergeant at the Presidio of Monterey, an Army installation.
A U.S. consular official in Tijuana, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case, said the officers could face a variety of charges, most of them involving the possession of weapons and equipment restricted under Mexican law to military use.
The official said the charges carry penalties ranging from three to 20 years in prison.
Lauren Mack, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, said Llanos and Matos were in custody at the La Mesa Penitentiary in Tijuana. However, the consular official said a Mexican federal judge ordered Llanos released on bail yesterday.
The two officers had just crossed the border at the San Ysidro port of entry when their SUV was pulled over by Mexican customs officers for a random inspection, Mack said.
The officers found two handguns and “well over 5,000 rounds of ammo” in the vehicle, one official said. A later estimate put the ammunition at 6,000 rounds, Mack said.
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Officer and 5 others Arrested by FBI
EL PASO
A Juárez police officer is accused of leading a gang of kidnappers and killers that was captured after a vehicle chase by federal police in Juárez, officials said.
Federal police Tuesday arrested municipal police officer Juan Gallegos Acosta and five other men, seized four AR-15 and nine AK-47 rifles and three vehicles, including a 2002 GMC Yukon and a 2007 Toyota Solara, both reported stolen in Texas.
"Unfortunately, he is a member of the department," said Javier Torres, police force spokesman. "We are working on purging the department. Bad police officers will be sanctioned."
Federal officials said a chase began when federal police saw the sand-colored Yukon speeding on Zaragoza Avenue while carrying a group of men with assault rifles and bulletproof vests. The chase ended in the Oasis area.
The men and seized items were turned over to a federal organized crime unit in Mexico City. No charges were announced.
The federal agents were part of Joint Operation Chihuahua, the anti-crime offensive sent to Juárez to curb a flood of homicides, which have reached about 650 so far this year party because of a war among drug cartels.
At least seven people were slain Tuesday, including a triple homicide in the southern part of the city.
Chihuahua state investigators said the unidentified bodies of two men and a woman were found shot to death in colonia Hacienda de las Torres III. One man died on the street. The woman was in the front passenger seat of a Jeep Grand Cherokee. The second man died in the front passenger seat of a Ford Crown Victoria with Texas plates inside a garage of a home on Calle Del Abrevadero.
In colonia Partido Iglesias, Juárez police went to a home at the end of a bloody trail left where the stabbed body of Armando Santillan Villegas, 48, had been dragged.
Mercedes Elguero Calderon, 38, and brothers Enrique Alonso and Luis Fernando Reyes Murguia, ages 38 and 36, were detained on suspicion of homicide. Later that morning, the body of an unidentified man shot multiple times was found in colonia Senderos de San Isidro.
Two men were killed in the evening in separate cases.
A Juárez police officer is accused of leading a gang of kidnappers and killers that was captured after a vehicle chase by federal police in Juárez, officials said.
Federal police Tuesday arrested municipal police officer Juan Gallegos Acosta and five other men, seized four AR-15 and nine AK-47 rifles and three vehicles, including a 2002 GMC Yukon and a 2007 Toyota Solara, both reported stolen in Texas.
"Unfortunately, he is a member of the department," said Javier Torres, police force spokesman. "We are working on purging the department. Bad police officers will be sanctioned."
Federal officials said a chase began when federal police saw the sand-colored Yukon speeding on Zaragoza Avenue while carrying a group of men with assault rifles and bulletproof vests. The chase ended in the Oasis area.
The men and seized items were turned over to a federal organized crime unit in Mexico City. No charges were announced.
The federal agents were part of Joint Operation Chihuahua, the anti-crime offensive sent to Juárez to curb a flood of homicides, which have reached about 650 so far this year party because of a war among drug cartels.
At least seven people were slain Tuesday, including a triple homicide in the southern part of the city.
Chihuahua state investigators said the unidentified bodies of two men and a woman were found shot to death in colonia Hacienda de las Torres III. One man died on the street. The woman was in the front passenger seat of a Jeep Grand Cherokee. The second man died in the front passenger seat of a Ford Crown Victoria with Texas plates inside a garage of a home on Calle Del Abrevadero.
In colonia Partido Iglesias, Juárez police went to a home at the end of a bloody trail left where the stabbed body of Armando Santillan Villegas, 48, had been dragged.
Mercedes Elguero Calderon, 38, and brothers Enrique Alonso and Luis Fernando Reyes Murguia, ages 38 and 36, were detained on suspicion of homicide. Later that morning, the body of an unidentified man shot multiple times was found in colonia Senderos de San Isidro.
Two men were killed in the evening in separate cases.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Mexico Officer Kills Federal Officer
A police officer and four other people with suspected ties to a powerful drug cartel have been arrested in the assassination of Mexico's acting federal police chief, authorities said Monday.
The three men and two women belonged to a criminal cell believed to be acting on the orders of the Sinaloa drug cartel, said Gerardo Garay, the anti-drug coordinator for the federal police. The drug trafficking organization had been a key target of operations led by Edgar Millan Gomez, who was gunned down inside his Mexico City home last week.
The alleged leader of the cell, Jose Antonio Montes Garfias, had been assigned to a federal police unit in the northern state of Sinaloa since February but never reported to work during that period because he was on medical leave, Garay said. He is suspected in the killing of another federal officer days before Millan's death.
Officials at the attorney general's office could not say if lawyers had been assigned to the five suspects.
Garay refused to say if other federal officers were suspected of involvement, saying only that investigators were not ruling out any possibilities.
Millan was the highest-ranking of four senior officers killed since May 1 in attacks the government has blamed on gangs resisting its crackdown against drug trafficking. The assassinations have prompted stepped up calls from the Bush administration for Congress to approve a US$1.4 billion (euro910 million) proposal to help fight drug crime in Mexico and Central America.
Garay said a lone hit man waited inside Millan's Mexico City home and sprayed him with bullets shortly after the officer opened the door and turned on the lights. Millan's bodyguards immediately captured the alleged hit man, Alejandro Ramirez, who was found with keys to Millan's apartment. The other four suspects were tracked down hours later, Garay said.
Millan was responsible for coordinating drug trafficking operations between federal police and soldiers. He had recently announced the arrest of 12 suspected hit men tied to the Sinaloa cartel. He was named acting chief March 1 after his superior was promoted to a deputy Cabinet position.
Garay said Montes had suspected ties to top Sinaloa cartel leaders known as the Beltran Leyva brothers, although he refused to give any evidence, citing security reasons. One of the brothers, Alfredo Beltran Leyva, was arrested in Sinaloa state in January.
Montes was found with a list of license plates of five vehicles belonging to federal police commanders, including Roberto Bravo Velasco, an inspector gunned down in front of his home days before Millan was killed.
Before being assigned to Sinaloa, Montes had worked as an anti-drug officer in Mexico City's International Airport, Garay said. He had a notebook with detailed information on drug trafficking at the airport, and Garay said federal investigations into those operations may have been a key motive for Millan's killing.
The other three suspects were accused of providing logistical help for the plot, including vehicles and radios.
Since taking office in 2006, President Felipe Calderon has sent more than 25,000 troops to drug hotspots. Cartels have responded with unprecedented violence, beheading police and killing soldiers. Drug-related violence killed more than 2,500 people last year alone in Mexico.
The Bush administration reiterated its appeal Monday for Congress to approve the law enforcement aid package known as the Merida Initiative.
"We are shocked by the escalating violence against Mexican law enforcement officials," said U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack, calling recent attacks "a brutal reaction to President Calderon's determination to fight organized crime."
The three men and two women belonged to a criminal cell believed to be acting on the orders of the Sinaloa drug cartel, said Gerardo Garay, the anti-drug coordinator for the federal police. The drug trafficking organization had been a key target of operations led by Edgar Millan Gomez, who was gunned down inside his Mexico City home last week.
The alleged leader of the cell, Jose Antonio Montes Garfias, had been assigned to a federal police unit in the northern state of Sinaloa since February but never reported to work during that period because he was on medical leave, Garay said. He is suspected in the killing of another federal officer days before Millan's death.
Officials at the attorney general's office could not say if lawyers had been assigned to the five suspects.
Garay refused to say if other federal officers were suspected of involvement, saying only that investigators were not ruling out any possibilities.
Millan was the highest-ranking of four senior officers killed since May 1 in attacks the government has blamed on gangs resisting its crackdown against drug trafficking. The assassinations have prompted stepped up calls from the Bush administration for Congress to approve a US$1.4 billion (euro910 million) proposal to help fight drug crime in Mexico and Central America.
Garay said a lone hit man waited inside Millan's Mexico City home and sprayed him with bullets shortly after the officer opened the door and turned on the lights. Millan's bodyguards immediately captured the alleged hit man, Alejandro Ramirez, who was found with keys to Millan's apartment. The other four suspects were tracked down hours later, Garay said.
Millan was responsible for coordinating drug trafficking operations between federal police and soldiers. He had recently announced the arrest of 12 suspected hit men tied to the Sinaloa cartel. He was named acting chief March 1 after his superior was promoted to a deputy Cabinet position.
Garay said Montes had suspected ties to top Sinaloa cartel leaders known as the Beltran Leyva brothers, although he refused to give any evidence, citing security reasons. One of the brothers, Alfredo Beltran Leyva, was arrested in Sinaloa state in January.
Montes was found with a list of license plates of five vehicles belonging to federal police commanders, including Roberto Bravo Velasco, an inspector gunned down in front of his home days before Millan was killed.
Before being assigned to Sinaloa, Montes had worked as an anti-drug officer in Mexico City's International Airport, Garay said. He had a notebook with detailed information on drug trafficking at the airport, and Garay said federal investigations into those operations may have been a key motive for Millan's killing.
The other three suspects were accused of providing logistical help for the plot, including vehicles and radios.
Since taking office in 2006, President Felipe Calderon has sent more than 25,000 troops to drug hotspots. Cartels have responded with unprecedented violence, beheading police and killing soldiers. Drug-related violence killed more than 2,500 people last year alone in Mexico.
The Bush administration reiterated its appeal Monday for Congress to approve the law enforcement aid package known as the Merida Initiative.
"We are shocked by the escalating violence against Mexican law enforcement officials," said U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack, calling recent attacks "a brutal reaction to President Calderon's determination to fight organized crime."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)