Thread: Border Cops Accused Of Decapitating Fellow Officers

http://www.nbc4.tv/news/9730298/detail.html

Border Cops Accused Of Decapitating Fellow Officers

POSTED: 7:59 am PDT August 24, 2006
UPDATED: 8:24 am PDT August 24, 2006

Mexico's attorney general said Wednesday that corrupt policemen have been arrested on suspicion of decapitating three of their fellow officers in June.

According to Daniel Cabeza de Vaca, there will be a wave of arrests of allegedly corrupt police on the Mexico-California border following an investigation into a network of officials protecting the Arellano-Felix drug trafficking gang, whose alleged leader awaits trial in the United States.

The policemen are suspected of involvement in the June killings of three of their fellow officers, Cabeza de Vaca said. The three victims were last seen alive going to the scene of a reported kidnapping in Rosarito. Investigators said that their bodies were dumped in an empty lot in the beach city of Rosarito. The bodies of Rosarito officers Ismael Arellano, Jesus Hernandez and Benjamin Ventura were wrapped in blankets and bound with tape. Their heads were later found on a beach in Tijuana, Mexico.

Cabeza de Vaca told a news conference that the network protected the suspected Tijuana cartel as it smuggled tons of marijuana, cocaine and methamphetamine over the border to U.S. consumers.

"These criminal groups, especially the Tijuana cartel, depend on the support of corrupt police," Cabeza de Vaca said. "It's very important. It sustains their operations."

On Saturday, federal prosecutors charged Officers Jorge Alberto Perez and Salvador Cebreros with taking bribes to protect the Arellano-Felix gang. The two officers worked at the police department of Rosarito, Mexico, about 15 miles south of the U.S. border at San Diego.

Cabeza de Vaca said Perez and Cebreros were part of a "a big protection network" working for the cartel in both Rosarito and Tijuana. The police forces will be "purified," with all corrupt officers being brought to justice, he said.

"The Tijuana case is an emblematic case for us," he said. "We have information about all of the organization. There are people meeting on it at this moment. ... We are going to work for the complete dismantling" of the alleged cartel.

Last week, the U.S. Coast Guard captured Francisco Javier Arellano-Felix, 36, when he was fishing in international waters off the Mexican coast aboard the U.S.-registered sport boat Dock Holiday.

Known in Mexico as El Tigrillo, or Little Tiger, Arellano-Felix is accused of taking over the Tijuana clan in 2002 when the gang lost two of his older brothers: Benjamin, who was jailed, and Ramon, who was killed.

The sting operation to net Arellano-Felix began when Mexican agents back in May shared with their U.S. counterparts the reputed drug trafficker's planned fishing trip, Cabeza de Vaca said.

Arellano-Felix is being held in San Diego, where he has pleaded not guilty to racketeering, racketeering conspiracy, conspiracy to import and distribute controlled substances and money laundering -- charges that could land him up to 40 years in prison.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy said the government may also seek additional charges that would allow for the death penalty.

Mexican agents are in San Diego, helping U.S. authorities with the case and interrogating Arellano-Felix, Cabeza de Vaca said. The suspect also faces organized crime and drug trafficking charges in Mexico. Cabeza de Vaca has said that authorities may eventually seek his extradition.

Cabeza de Vaca has said that authorities may eventually seek his extradition.

The last honest cop they put in Rosarito lasted one day. Any doubts that "eventually" means when the price gets right?