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News (Media Awareness Project) - US TX: Editorial: Cop Corruption
Title:US TX: Editorial: Cop Corruption
Published On:2010-03-09
Source:El Paso Times (TX)
Fetched On:2010-04-02 03:16:47
COP CORRUPTION

Testimony Attests to Juarez Officers on the Take

It's always been troublesome to hear talk that Mexico's drug cartels
have infiltrated that country's law-enforcement agencies.

But it was downright scary to note there's now court testimony
attesting to that.

In an El Paso courtroom last week, a witness took the stand and said
police in Juarez and Chihuahua state are under the control of drug
kingpins -- or they wind up dead.

Jesus Fierro-Mendez was testifying in the drug-smuggling trial of
Fernando Ontiveros-Arambula and Manuel Chavez-Betancourt.
Fierro-Mendez said, "Any (cop) who didn't want to be on their payroll
still had to obey orders. If they did not obey, they would be shot."

Fierro-Mendez' credibility may be in question since he has a
background of being arrested on a conspiracy charge related to
cocaine, plus allegedly having a loaded AK-47 rifle when arrested in
El Paso.

He had previously testified he was an informant for Immigration and
Customs Enforcement; he said he kept the agency updated on drug-cartel
workings in Juarez.

Fierro-Mendez also said Mexican drug lord Joaquin "Chapo" Guzman used
him and others to provide U.S. officials with information about the
rival Vicente Carrillo Fuentes cartel.

Those are the two major drug cartels battling for control of Juarez,
and since January of 2006 there have been more than 4,700
drug-war-related slayings in the city.

To hear of corruption -- troublesome. To note testimony to that --
scary.
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