Mexico Under Siege

MEXICO TRAFFICKERS BRIBED FORMER ANTI-DRUG CHIEF, OFFICIALS SAY

Noe Ramirez Mandujano, a Prosecutor Who Resigned As Head of the SIEDO
Organized Crime Unit in July, Is Arrested on Suspicion of Passing
Intelligence to Sinaloa Drug Gangsters.

In a spiraling probe of corruption at the top levels of Mexican law
enforcement, authorities said Friday that the nation's former
anti-drug chief had accepted $450,000 to tip off traffickers.

Noe Ramirez Mandujano, a veteran federal prosecutor who headed an
elite organized crime unit known by its initials in Spanish, SIEDO,
was arrested on suspicion of passing intelligence to drug gangsters
based in the northwestern state of Sinaloa, Mexican Atty. Gen. Eduardo
Medina Mora said.

Ramirez, 47, who served for 20 months before quitting in July, is the
highest-ranking official arrested as part of the government's
investigation of drug traffickers' infiltration of police agencies.

The charges against him are the most serious against a Mexican
anti-narcotics official since the country's former drug czar was
arrested in 1997 on charges of helping a Ciudad Juarez-based cartel.

Six other officials and agents from SIEDO, a division of the attorney
general's office that investigates drug smuggling, arms trafficking
and other criminal activities, already face charges of leaking
intelligence to the Sinaloa group.

Medina Mora said a protected informant told authorities he had paid
Ramirez a total of $450,000 as part of a monthly payoff scheme, "in
exchange for providing information about investigations and ongoing
actions" against the Sinaloa-based smugglers.

The attorney general said that Ramirez voluntarily appeared before
prosecutors to answer the accusations and that there was sufficient
cause to detain him.

Medina Mora did not specify what information Ramirez is suspected of
passing to the gang. He said information was given to two Sinaloa
factions: the Beltran Leyva brothers and Zambada brothers.

The charges, if true, represent a major setback for President Felipe
Calderon's war on Mexican drug cartels, which has been a centerpiece
of his 2-year-old administration. Mexico is awash in drug violence,
with more than 4,000 dead this year, according to unofficial counts by
the nation's news media.

The allegations put a new dent in the reputation of SIEDO, which U.S.
officials had considered trustworthy.

Further evidence of high-level cartel infiltration could leave U.S.
agents more wary about sharing information with the agency.

Ramirez's arrest, coming as part of a probe called Operation Cleanup,
also will probably further undermine public confidence. Mexicans are
increasingly weary of the killing and long ago became accustomed to
corruption charges against top police officials.

The offensive, which has sent 45,000 federal troops and 5,000 federal
police officers into the streets, has yielded arrests of several
high-profile trafficking figures and big seizures of drugs, cash and
weapons. But the offensive has yet to crush any of the major drug groups.

Moreover, Calderon administration officials in recent months have
confronted an embarrassing string of arrests of ranking police
officers and prosecutors assigned to the drug fight.

This week, authorities announced they had detained Mexico's liaison to
Interpol as part of the inquiry on leaks to cartels. He was the third
top-level federal police commander ordered held in recent weeks.

Calderon, who was traveling Friday in Chile, said he was determined to
clean up his administration.

"The government of Mexico has a firm and determined commitment to
fight against organized crime, and not only organized crime, but
against the corruption that organized crime generates," he said.

The first SIEDO arrests came in early August, just after Ramirez left
the agency's top post in a shake-up over unsatisfactory results
against kidnapping and drug trafficking. Officials said at the time
that his resignation was not tied to the emerging investigation inside
the organized crime unit.

Ramirez was then assigned as Mexico's representative to the United
Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, based in Vienna.

Last month, Medina Mora announced that as part of the infiltration
probe, 35 officials and agents assigned to SIEDO had been arrested or
fired. Among those arrested were a senior intelligence officer and the
agency's general technical coordinator.