Tijuana Police Try to Restore Public Trust

By Dan Keane

ASSOCIATED PRESS

5:31 p.m. August 12, 2008

TIJUANA, Mexico – People have so little confidence in the police here that the army invited citizens to report crimes to soldiers instead. Officers are so mistrusted that federal authorities even took their guns away for a time last year.

Now Tijuana is campaigning to regain that trust with an accountability campaign to break the officers' old, corrupt habits.

Public Safety Secretary Alberto Capella proudly points to a Tijuana policeman accused of murder who was promptly arrested by his fellow officers.

“If this scenario had happened nine months ago, he wouldn't have been captured. Or he would have asked for help, and they would have let him go,” Capella told The Associated Press. “That's a clear indication of the change of attitude taking place among Tijuana police.”

See this related story! -mm

Official: Mexico nabs 6 drug snitches in AG office

ALEXANDRA OLSON

Published: 08.14.2008

MEXICO CITY - Six federal agents have been arrested on suspicion of passing information to a group of powerful drug lords, a spokesman for the Attorney General's Office said Wednesday.

The agents worked for the anti-drug-trafficking intelligence unit of the Attorney General's office, the spokesman told reporters on condition of anonymity because his office prohibits him from being named. None were prosecutors, but all had various coordination responsibilities during arrests, interrogations and the transfer of prisoners.

The infiltration of drug gangs into the ranks of police and federal agencies has long been endemic in Mexico. It stands as a major obstacle in President Felipe Calderon's fight to destroy the cartels, using thousands of soldiers and federal police deployed across the country.

The six agents are suspected of leaking information to the Beltran Leyva brothers, who head one of the most feared drug-trafficking organizations in Mexico.

Mexico to establish 5 anti-kidnapping centers

ASSOCIATED PRESS

3:23 p.m. August 11, 2008

MEXICO CITY – Mexico is establishing five national anti-kidnapping centers and pushing for a cleanup of police forces after authorities were implicated in the deadly abduction of a prominent businessman's son.

The Public Safety Department's intelligence coordinator, Luis Cardenas, says the centers will staffed by 300 federal police and open 24 hours a day. The centers were announced on Sunday.

On Monday, Interior Secretary Juan Camilo Mourino said the federal government has offered to help eliminate corruption in local and state police forces.

Mexican police, migrant smugglers open fire: 2 die

ASSOCIATED PRESS

5:01 p.m. August 4, 2008

VERACRUZ, Mexico – Two people are dead after a shootout between Mexican police and smugglers driving a truck carrying illegal immigrants.

Police caught up with the truck near the town of Agua Dulce in southeast Mexico. The town's police chief, Jose Atenedoro, says the smugglers then opened fire on officers, starting a shootout and car chase. The chase ended when the truck crashed into a ditch.

Gunfire killed two people, while about 30 of the 42 immigrants hidden in the truck were injured in the crash Monday. Both of the men killed were migrants.

Now if this were in the US, the families of the killed smugglers would be filing law suits against the officers, who would have been arrested. -mm

Mexican agents found with cash could face jail

By Sandra Dibble

UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

7:29 p.m. August 1, 2008

Two Mexican federal police agents found with more $500,000 in cash at a residence in suburban Los Angeles could face up to four years in a U.S. prison, the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office said yesterday.

Carlos Cedano Filippini, 34, a Baja California-based commander with the Agencia Federal de Investigacion, or AFI, was one of four suspects charged in Los Angeles Superior Court with possessing a large sum for drug-trafficking purposes.

Also charged were Vctor Manuel Juarez, 36, another AFI agent; Julissa Lopez, 35, Cedano's wife; and Hector Manuel Lopez, 33. They are being held on $2 million bail each. If convicted of the felony charge, they could serve sentences of up to four years.

Their arrests late Wednesday in West Covina came four days after Cedano's two top deputies were shot to death in the Baja California capital of Mexicali outside a Chinese restaurant.