Thursday, December 4, 2008

Former Drug Czar of Mexico Charged

The former drug czar of Mexico was charged in a payoff scandal. Noe Ramires is the highest ranking official detained yet in the sweeping corruption case. Mexico accused its former drug czar of taking $450,000 from a cartel he was supposed to destroy, going public with a scandal that deals a serious blow to the country's U.S. backed drug war. He is the highest ranking law enforcement official detained yet as part of Mexico's sweeping effort to weed out officials who allegedly shared police information with violent drug smugglers. It sounds like it is a very good thing they caught him. He was going to collect similar amounts each month for alerting the drug gang to planned police operations. Isn't that something?

Even though the arrest complicates President Felipe Calderon's nationwide crackdown on the drug trade, Attorney General Eduardo Medina said it also proved the government's commitment to rooting out corruption. That commitment could be key to ensuring continued U.S. support for its drug fight. Thomas Schweich, a former U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for international law enforcement, said the revelations suggest Mexico is aggressively dealing with its corruption problem. It is good to see Mexico working on stopping their drug problems. So far they have arrested at least five top officials and two federal agents this year as part of "Operation Clean House," which targets officials who allegedly shared information with the Pacific cartel.

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