Criminal Links: Mexico's corrupt police

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The U.S. has long suspected police complicity in the drug trade, and Mexico has at last confirmed it. The criminal links, the Mexican government says, include police "protection of personnel and goods, custody of drugs in transit, as well as continuing services of information."

That acknowledgment came as authorities arraigned six Jalisco state policemen last week on charges related to the kidnap and murder of U.S. Narcotics Agent Enrique Camarena Salazar in Guadalajara last month. The arrested officers have confessed that drug traffickers offered them from $200 to $6,250 a month for official protection--a tempting bribe for men who make only $200 to $400 a month and often must buy their own pistols.

One arrested officer, Commander Gabriel Gonzalez Gonzalez, died in police custody. Mexican authorities, insisting that Gonzalez died of natural causes, described him as a cocaine addict and an "intimate friend" of alleged Drug Kingpin Rafael Caro Quintero. But U.S. officials considered Gonzalez trustworthy: as Jalisco's top homicide detective for Guadalajara, Gonzalez had been investigating the Camarena kidnaping and the disappearance of six other Americans in recent months.

Several of the arrested officers charged that their confessions had been wrung by torture. Two of them, however, have admitted kidnaping Camarena. They say the Drug Enforcement Administration agent went along willingly when he saw who they were. Camarena's battered body was found three weeks ago in a plastic bag in a neighboring state, along with that of his Mexican pilot, Alfredo Zavala Avelar.

Mexican officials also arrested six civilians in connection with the crime, and they expect to arrest more policemen as the search widens. In Washington on Friday, Mexican Attorney General Sergio Garcia Ramirez met with Edwin Meese, his U.S. counterpart, on future joint drug-control operations. Meanwhile, on Highway 111 near Camarena's home in the California town of Calexico, a billboard put up by his friends carried a dire message for those who are thinking of crossing the border.