World

Gerardo Garay, one of Mexico's top police officers accused of helping cartel

by patgarcia | December 6, 2008 at 08:29 am

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During a conversation among friends, the probability of death sentence for kidnappers in Mexico was being discussed, then another issue came up as one of the participants mentioned death sentence should be proposed and executed to all those in the government found collaborating with drug cartels. They should be judged as traitors to our country.

Former acting federal police chief was accused Friday of collaborating with a notorious cartel and stealing money from a mansion during a raid to bust a drug trafficking ring.

A judge ordered Gerardo Garay's formal arrest on suspicion of organized crime, robbery and abuse of power, according to a statement from the Attorney General's office. Garay had been under preliminary detention for a month, but authorities had not revealed the allegations against him. He has previously denied any wrongdoing.

Garay is among several federal police officers arrested in "Operation Clean House," which aims to weed out corruption that came to light after the January arrest of Alfredo Beltran Leyva, a reputed Sinaloa cartel lieutenant.

Some of those arrested had been at the helm of President Felipe Calderon's nationwide offensive to take back territory controlled by drug gangs, a two-year campaign involving the deployment of more than 20,000 soldiers.