Corrupt cops face test of loyalty
Corrupt cops face test of loyalty
Drug gangs court Arellano associates
By Anna Cearley
UNION-TRIBUNE
September 11, 2006
TIJUANA – These are troubling times for police who have aligned themselves with drug groups.
Since U.S. authorities arrested suspected drug cartel kingpin Francisco Javier Arellano Félix last month, Mexican federal authorities have vowed they
will purge police agencies of officials linked to the Arellanos.
At the same time, rival drug gangs are rumored to be enlisting the support of police, creating a dangerous challenge for corrupt cops who have had a
long working relationship with the Arellanos.
“The loyalties to the Arellanos run very deep because they have worked here so long” and have so many obligated to them, said Victor Clark, a Tijuana
human rights activist who follows drug trafficking trends.
Though he doesn't discount efforts being made by the Arellano's rivals, he believes that those who do decide to switch teams “are signing their death
sentence.”
The Arellanos have taken a pummeling over the past six years as their top leaders were arrested by Mexican and U.S. authorities. But they have managed
to persevere.
Drug groups headed by suspected rival traffickers Ismael Zambada García and Joaquín Guzmán are known to operate in the Mexicali region, which the
Arellanos are said to have lost control of two years ago, and to have their sights set on Tijuana.
Detention of police officers aligned with the Arellanos is of potential benefit to rival groups interested in developing their own police alliances.
Mexican federal authorities detained two Rosarito Beach police officers who they said were suspected of working for the Arellanos. And last weekend,
Mexican federal investigators announced they are holding former Tijuana police officer Julio César Abasolo Pierce under house arrest for 90 days as
they prepare to file charges based on his alleged involvement with the Arellanos.
Abasolo was deported Aug. 25 from San Diego County to Mexico, where he was promptly taken into custody.
Mexican federal authorities also have charged another city police officer, Mónica Guadalupe Ramírez Radilla, who had been held under house arrest
since June, with organized crime activities, kidnapping and use of illicit funds. They announced she is suspected of working with the Arellanos.
While an upswing in killings can indicate instability in the drug world, statistics provided by the state Attorney General's Office don't show
anything remarkable since the arrest of Arellano.
But anytime a police officer is killed in a particularly violent way, the Arellanos or their rivals are considered prime suspects.
The grisly weekend killing of off-duty state preventive officers Edgar Casillas Escoto, 29, and Carlo Edgar Sánchez Arenas, 31, has raised many
questions about the motive of the crime.
Police who receive drug money are sometimes targeted for betraying the organization, failing to live up their obligations or because they have become
greedy in extorting traffickers and criminals. Others are targeted because they stand up to the traffickers.
These officers, whose bodies were found Sept. 3, died from severe beatings. One was left with a police credential pinned to his head.
The officers were based in Mexicali. They were killed in Tijuana while on a short assignment to assist their co-workers as part of a multiagency task
force, state authorities said.
State investigators would only say that the killings appeared to be retaliatory.
“We know that all who work in the police forces are at risk and exposed to a situation of this type,” said Jorge Cruz Medina, director of the state
investigators group. “It's a reaction to the work we are doing.”
No one is speaking publicly about the rumor that officers are being offered large sums of money to work for Arellano's rivals, but it's something
being talked about within police circles.
“The offer of money isn't something new, but it's a grave risk because they are breaking a rule and the tradition” of working with the Arellanos,
Clark said.
Drug trend experts in Tijuana doubt a power shift is imminent. The killing of Rogelio Delgado Neri, a former state prosecutor who oversaw the Tijuana
office, still seems to serve as a cautionary tale.
When he was gunned down in 2004 at the Ruben Hood bar, Mexican authorities hailed Delgado as a victim in the war against drug traffickers and they
blamed the Arellanos. Delgado had previously been detained, while in office, on suspicions that he was working for the Arellanos. He was never
charged. He stepped down in 2003 after receiving death threats.
It's been widely interpreted here – though it's never been publicly acknowledged by Mexican authorities – that the killing was a message from the
Arellanos to other law enforcement officials to refrain from cutting deals with other drug groups.
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Anna Cearley: (619) 542-4595; anna.cearley@uniontrib.com
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