Mexico seeks rearrest of agents freed in drug case

By Frank Jack Daniel

REUTERS

11:51 a.m. December 3, 2005

MEXICO CITY – Mexico is seeking to get back into custody five Mexican federal agents who were charged in the kidnapping of suspected drug hit men but released by a judge in September, officials said Saturday.

Mexico arrested eight federal agents on Aug. 31, but a few days later a judge released five of them for lack of evidence.

"We totally respect the decision of the judge but we have appealed because we do not agree (with it)," an official in Mexico's attorney general's office said on condition of anonymity.

The appeal was filed in September, the office said.

The agents, members of an elite force increasingly linked to corruption, were arrested after a video surfaced showing four beaten and bruised men confessing to being members of the Gulf Cartel of drug traffickers. One of them was then shot in the head.

Authorities say the federal agents charged were in the pay of a drug gang led by Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, who is battling the Gulf Cartel for control of lucrative smuggling operations along the U.S.-Mexico border.

The case exposes the often cozy relations between Mexican authorities and organized crime. Drug gangs routinely bribe police, officials and judges to protect them or carry out their dirty work.

Excerpts of the video, taken several months ago, were published for the first time on the Dallas Morning News' Web site on Thursday and have caused widespread disgust, even in violence-hardened Mexico, where brutal drug murders are almost daily occurrences.

It is not known how many of the four men in the video were killed, but police say the kidnappings were carried out in the Pacific resort of Acapulco and they are still trying to find the victims.

In addition to the five freed agents, three other agents were accused but they are on the run, according to the attorney general's office. It would not say whether two civilians arrested along with the agents in August remain in prison.