TIJUANA — Tijuana Mayor Jorge Ramos’ administration has been dealt a severe blow with the detention of five top police officers accused of
collaborating with a violent drug gang believed responsible for the deaths of numerous municipal officers.
Ramon Angel Soto Corral, 43, one of three shift commanders in the 2,100-officer Tijuana Police Department, was among five high-ranking officers
detained Monday by Mexican federal forces in Tijuana. The arrests were announced Tuesday in Mexico City by the federal Public Safety Secretariat.
Also taken into custody were four sector supervisors, including Macario Arturo Ramirez Enriquez, 50, Jose Enrique Ramirez Zambrano, 34, Juan Carlos
Cruz Espinosa, 49, and Francisco Ortega Zamora, 49. The latter two are military captains on leave, hired as part of a major anti-corruption campaign
spearheaded by Tijuana’s secretary of public safety, Lt. Col. Julian Leyzaola Perez.
The officers were among 11 men detained Monday by federal forces inside a safe house in Tijuana allegedly being run by a criminal group with ties to
the powerful Sinaloa cartel, according to a news release by the federal Public Safety Secretariat. Also among the detainees was a former member of the
Baja California ministerial police. Being held captive inside the house were two abducted members of a rival criminal gang, the statement said.
The operation took place following the arrests Monday in Baja California Sur of two suspects, Jose Manuel Garcia Simental and Raydel Lopez Uriarte.
The two were identified as the leaders of a brutal drug gang that has been operating in the Tijuana area. Authorities say the group is responsible for
numerous killings and kidnappings in the Tijuana region, and led a campaign to intimidate municipal police officers by gunning them down.
Since taking office more than two years ago, Mayor Ramos has led an unprecedented push to root out corruption the department, which had become heavily
infiltrated by organized crime. More than 400 officers have been dropped from the force and more than 100 are behind bars, accused of collaborating
with criminal groups. During his administration, 43 officers have been killed in the line of duty, according to municipal police figures.
Under Ramos, the city has forged close ties with the Mexican military, which has been spearheading the fight against organized crime in the region.
At a news conference in Tijuana yesterday, both the mayor and Baja California Gov. José Guadalupe Osuna Millan applauded the detentions. Ramos
said Leyzaola participated in the arrests, and vowed to continue his administration’s efforts to remove corrupt officers.
“This will last throughout my administration,” Ramos said. “No one is exempt.”
Osuna said the detentions showed the close coordination of municipal, state and federal levels of government. They offered proof, he said, of “the
unbending political will... to dismantle the criminal groups that were operating in our state.”
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Photo: A suspect man wearing a police officer uniform who alleged was working for a drug cartel in Tijuana, center, is guarded by federal police as he
is presented to the press in Mexico City, Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2010. The man was arrested yesterday in Baja California, along with other alleged key
members of a drug cartel operating in the border town of Tijuana.
Photo Credit: AP/Alexandre Meneghini
BajaNews - 2-10-2010 at 12:40 AM
Quote:
Originally posted by BajaNews
...along with other alleged key members of a drug cartel operating in the border town of Tijuana.
The Feds are going to have to up their budget for Coca Cola for the interrogation rooms.postholedigger - 2-10-2010 at 08:12 AM
Ya think Tres Letras and his cronies are singin'?Woooosh - 2-10-2010 at 09:21 AM
Quote:
Originally posted by postholedigger
Ya think Tres Letras and his cronies are singin'?
Like canaries. The interrogators are going to need that expensive Mexican Coca-Cola with the real sugar.
This was a Sinaloa cartel safe house in TJ they were all caught in. Hard to believe any civilization would tolerate police arranging the deaths of
fellow police. Mexico won't either.
Some of these guys arrested are Mexican Military, brought in to clean up TJ. So it looks like using the Military for civilian law purposes wasn't
the solution to this specific problem at this point in time. It would seem there is no solution if even these screened and supposedly non-corruptible
military leaders were actually worse than the hundreds of TJ cops they fired last year based on suspicion. Calderon wouldn't have known if he hadn't
tried though.
