July 9, 2008, 7:03PM
Mexico lawyer's death may be tied to organized crime


By DUDLEY ALTHAUS
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle Mexico City Bureau

MEXICO CITY — A gunman killed one of Mexico's leading defense attorneys on Wednesday, and federal authorities took over the investigation, suggesting they believe the slaying was related to organized crime.

Marcos Castillejos, 65 — a former federal assistant attorney general whose clients included an ex-president of Guatemala and the sons of former first lady Marta Sahagun — was gunned down as he arrived at his offices in central Mexico City.

The killing is the latest in a string of slayings in Mexico City targeting senior law enforcement and court officials. The acting head of Mexico's federal police was assassinated at a condo in May. A top federal police commander was shot to death in a diner last month. The gunmen got away.

More than 2,000 people have been slain in underworld violence in the first six months of this year, according to various media tallies. This year's bloodshed looks certain to far outpace that of last year, when some 2,500 people were slain.

Lawyers representing underworld figures have figured prominently among those killed this year.

Castillejos served in the early 1990s as a federal assistant attorney general and later headed the Mexican capital's prisons administration. His son, Alfonso, was until six weeks ago a senior adviser to Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora.

Police for Mexico's state governments usually investigate homicides. The federal authorities become involved in cases only when they suspect ties to organized crime, usually Mexico's powerful drug-trafficking gangs.

Federal officials said Wednesday that they have taken over the case because Castillejos was killed by a weapon prohibited by federal law.

Castillejos helped Manuel and Jorge Bribiesco, sons of the wife of former President Vicente Fox, fight corruption and influence-peddling charges. And he unsuccessfully represented former Guatemalan President Alfonso Portillo in his attempt to fight an extradition to his home country to face corruption charges.

Castillejos' clients also included Luis de la Barreda, the former chief of Mexico's secret police, whom the lawyer successfully defended against charges linked to Mexico's so-called "dirty war" of the 1970s.

Disbanded in 1985 for its ties to drug trafficking, the secret police force — the Federal Security Directorate — was key in the campaign, in which hundreds of leftist rebels and sympathizers disappeared. De la Barreda died of natural causes a month ago.

dudley.althaus@chron.com

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5879938.html