|
|
|
| NEWS > 21 November 2008 |
Other related articles:
NY State Police arrest officer
The New York State Police say an officer from the upstate town of Hunter has been charged with having a sexual relationship with an underage girl when he was on duty.
State Police say the 30-year-old officer was arrested after an investigation into allegations he had sex with the girl multiple times including when he was working and when he was off duty.
The officer lives in Durham. He's been charged with rape, criminal sex act, endangering the welfare of a child and official misconduct.
He was arraigned in Catskill and sent to the Greene County jail.
... Read more
|
 Article sourced from
|
|
Houston Chronicle - United Sta
21 November 2008
This article appeared in the above title/site.
To view it in its entirity click this link.
|
Ethics in Policing
|
Ex-Mexican official accused of
Authorities have arrested the former head of an elite organized crime strike force on charges that he took a $450,000 payoff from a drug gang, part of a widening corruption scandal involving dozens of federal agents.
The arrest of Noe Ramirez, a former deputy attorney general, follows those of a four other senior agents in the past three weeks as well as the forced resignations of at least 30 other officers.
Among those arrested were the current and former directors of the Mexican office of Interpol, the international police organization.
Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora said at a news conference Friday that the arrests are part of an ongoing purge of federal agents corrupted by Mexico's drug-trafficking organizations.
"We are very conscious of what's at stake," Medina Mora said.
Ramirez was a top lieutenant to the attorney general and a linchpin in Mexico's anti-drug campaign when he served as head of SIEDO, a strke force composed of prosecutors and police. He resigned in July.
2 other officials nabbed
Ramirez met with organized crime figures at least twice shortly after he was named to his leadership post two years ago, the attorney general said. Two other key officials accompanied Ramirez to at least one of the meetings.
Those officials, Miguel Colorado and Fernando Rivera, were arrested in late October on charges that they took $450,000 payoffs from the gangsters. Colorado is being extradited to the United States, where he faces charges.
The information leading to many of the arrests was supplied by an informant, called "Felipe" in reports, who told U.S. and Mexican officials that he had helped infiltrate both Mexican police and a law enforcement unit of the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City.
"They are, as of now, the only ones who are under investigation," the attorney general said.
Political infighting?
Medina Mora, the attorney general, denied media reports of the arrest of Mario Velarde, a former close aide to Genaro Garcia Luna, who as secretary of public security is widely considered Mexico's most powerful policemen. But a number of other officials arrested earlier had been close to Garcia Luna in the past.
Garcia Luna and Medina Mora have clashed at various times this year, sparking reports of a rivalry for control of the drug war.
Medina Mora stressed Friday that Garcia Luna is not under investigation and said there was no ulterior motive in the recent arrests.
Weeks after taking office, in December 2006, Calderon launched a crackdown on the country's powerful drug-smuggling organizations. He ordered 30,000 soldiers and federal police to patrol cities and villages where the gangsters hold sway.
The crackdown has jailed a few leading traffickers and thousands of lesser criminals and seized more than 60 tons of U.S.-bound cocaine and other narcotics. But it has also fueled what amounts to a huge gang war by pitting the syndicates against the security forces and each other. The bloodshed has claimed about 4,000 lives this year and nearly 6,000 since Calderon became president.
"The Mexican government is firmly committed to the fight against organized crime," Calderon said Friday in Santiago, Chile, where he was paying a state visit. "And not just organized crime but corruption as well."
Among the most powerful organizations is the Sinaloa Cartel, composed of several family-based gangs from that Pacific Coast state. The cartel has been fragmenting this year, with former allies turning against one another.
Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman is considered the most powerful member of the syndicate. He's been warring in recent months with the Beltran Leyva clan, fellow Sinaloans and former allies. The Beltran Leyvas reportedly blame Guzman for the January arrest of Alfredo Beltran, one of the clan's brothers.
Another smuggling gang controlled by Ismael Zambada and his brothers remains allied with Guzman.
Together those groups are battling for control of smuggling routes and retail narcotics sales in Ciudad Juarez, where gangland violence has claimed approximately 1,200 lives this year.
Medina Mora did not specify which gang allegedly had bribed Ramirez and the other arrested officers. "In some cases it was from the Beltran Leyva brothers, in other cases with the Zambada brothers," he said.
But Ramirez's replacement as head of the strike force said the officials arrested last month had been bribed by the Beltran Leyvas.
U.S. envoy weighs in
Ramirez's arrest demonstrates "how seriously the government of Mexico is taking the challenge of rooting out narcotics-related corruption," Tony Garza, the U.S. ambassador to Mexico, said.
"President Calderon has taken firm measures to combat corruption within his law-enforcement agencies," Garza said.
A political cartoon published Friday in Reforma, a leading Mexico City newspaper, showed the diminutive Calderon sitting alone and perplexed behind an oversized desk as a federal police agent tried to kill rats scurrying all around him.
Part of the three-year, $1.4 billion Merida Initiative, under which the U.S. will provide equipment and training to Mexican security forces, will be devoted to developing internal vetting and investigation capabilities of the police.
"U.S. agencies are helping to create mechanisms with Mexican agencies to help them filter bad guys," one U.S. official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
|
| |
 EiP Comments:
|
|---|
|
| |
* We have no wish to infringe the copyright of any newspaper or periodical. If you feel that we have done so then please contact us with the details and we will remove the article. The articles republished on this site are provided for the purposes of research , private study, criticism , review, and the reporting of current events' We have no wish to infringe the copyright of any newspaper , periodical or other works. If you feel that we have done so then please contact us with the details and where necessary we will remove the work concerned.
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
 |
Ethics in Policing, based in the UK, provide information and advice about the following:
Policing Research | Police News articles | Police Corruption | International Policing | Police Web Sites | Police Forum | Policing Ethics | Police Journals | Police Publications |
|
| |
|
