Corruption In police

Cartels pay corrupt cops about $100 million a month

Latin America Herald Tribune. Mexico: Cartels Pay Corrupt Cops $100 Million a Month.
http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=362206&CategoryId=14091
Organized crime pays some 1.27 billion pesos a month to municipal police, because thats the
portion of the salary the government does not pay the officers so they can live with dignity, the
high-ranking official said Friday.

Speaking on the final day of a meeting of the Association of Mexican Municipalities, or Ammac, held
in the western port city of Puerto Vallarta, Garcia Luna said that of the countrys 165,510 municipal
officers nationwide, just over 20 percent earns less than 1,000 pesos ($79) a month, while 60.9
percent earns no more than 4,000 pesos ($317) monthly.

Cops do it because have to choose between complying or dying
Latin America Herald Tribune. Mexico: Cartels Pay Corrupt Cops $100 Million a Month.
http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=362206&CategoryId=14091
The secretary, who backs Presidents Felipe Calderons proposal for a single police force per state,
said municipal officers currently account for 38.73 percent of all police in the country, adding that
rather than combat crime they merely comply with the guidelines of their jurisdictions.
State and local police in Mexico are poorly paid and are often confronted with the choice known
here as plomo o plata (lead or silver): accept a bribe for looking the other way or get killed for
refusing.

During Calderons tenure, a total of 915 municipal police, 698 state police and 463 federal agents
have been killed at the hands of criminal gangs, according to Public Safety Secretariat figures.

Infiltration in Mexican Police allowed most powerful drug lord to get key information on the
US War on Drugs as well as other US intelligence data
MARK STEVENSON. Huffington Post. Leaked documents suggest Mexico drug corruption. May 10,
2010.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20100510/lt-mexico-drug-war/
The reported discovery in cartel hands of a sheaf of police documents containing agents' names and
contact numbers, along with apparent references to shared U.S. intelligence data, has renewed fears
of high-level corruption in Mexico's war on drugs.
The trove of papers which also included an apparent drug cartel payroll listing police
commanders was found in the car of an associate of Mexico's most powerful drug lord, Joaquin "El
Chapo" Guzman, during a May 2009 bust, the newspaper Reforma said Monday.
The documents would have let traffickers know which police officials were posted to key trafficking
routes, and could have allowed criminals to contact or threaten the agents. One annotation in a pay
book written in what appears to be code mentions soldiers and police who purportedly got
payments; one is listed with the letters "PFP," an apparent reference to federal police.
"What I see clearly here ... is that the process of infiltration continues" among Mexican police, said
Samuel Gonzalez, the country's former top anti-drug prosecutor.

Mexican police have a lot of corruption
Ted Galen Carpenter. CATO. Corruption, Drug Cartels and the Mexican Police. September 4, 2012.
http://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/corruption-drug-cartels-mexican-police
The harsh truth is that Mexicos drug cartels are becoming stronger and more dangerous, and the
law-enforcement and security agencies arrayed against them are riddled with turncoats and
infiltrators. That is not surprising, since the drug syndicates have an estimated $35 billion to $60
billion a year in income at their disposal. Such a vast sum gives them an enormous capability to
corrupt those people who are assigned to oppose them. The United States faces an increasingly
troubling security situation on its southern border.

Corruption runs deep
ROBERT C. BONNER. NYT. Cracking the Mexican Cartels. April 15, 2012.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/16/opinion/16iht-edbonner16.html?_r=0
Once he assumed the presidency, Caldern realized that he could not rely on the federal police, the
Agencia Federal de Investigacin, to restore order or track down the cartel leaders. The A.F.I. was
riddled with corruption. Over the years, the cartels had bribed not only regional comandantes but
also top-level officials at the agencys Mexico City headquarters. The state police were even more
unreliable. Often on the payroll of the cartels in their respective regions, they not only failed to
cooperate with the federal police but also regularly protected the cartels and their leaders.

R/T
3 step plan to reform police corruption: 1. Creation of a new federal police force, 2.
Rebuilding 32 state forces, 3. Overhauling judicial and penal systems
ROBERT C. BONNER. NYT. Cracking the Mexican Cartels. April 15, 2012.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/16/opinion/16iht-edbonner16.html?_r=0
Caldern set about reforming Mexicos law enforcement institutions using a three-part strategy:
creating a new, professional federal police force; rebuilding each of the 32 state forces and giving
them the responsibilities of the discredited municipal police; and overhauling the judicial and penal
systems. He began his efforts with the federal police. Fed up with the corruption of the A.F.I., he
abolished the agency in May 2009 and created an entirely new force under the secretary for public
safety and security.

New police has 35,000 officers and first national crime info system built with fingerprints
ROBERT C. BONNER. NYT. Cracking the Mexican Cartels. April 15, 2012.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/16/opinion/16iht-edbonner16.html?_r=0
The new federal police force now has 35,000 officers and has built Mexicos first national crime
information system, which, among other things, stores the fingerprints of everyone who is arrested
in the country. The federal police have assumed command from the army in several regions and
demonstrated their ability to confront the cartels by apprehending several of their central figures.
The force has also avoided any serious incidents of corruption.

Retstructuring Mexican police forces
ROBERT C. BONNER. NYT. Cracking the Mexican Cartels. April 15, 2012.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/16/opinion/16iht-edbonner16.html?_r=0
Caldern has begun restructuring Mexicos state police forces as well, along the lines of the reforms
he made to the federal police. Given the sheer number of new officers that must be vetted, hired,
and trained, it will take at least several more years to complete the job.

Creating a more transparent system by taking trials to public and by building max security
prisons
ROBERT C. BONNER. NYT. Cracking the Mexican Cartels. April 15, 2012.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/16/opinion/16iht-edbonner16.html?_r=0
Finally, to address the judicial shortcomings, Caldern has proposed moving to a more transparent
criminal justice system, with trials taking place in public, and he has begun building maximum
security prisons modeled after those in the United States.

Last three years they ave captured or killed over 40 major cartel leaders
ROBERT C. BONNER. NYT. Cracking the Mexican Cartels. April 15, 2012.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/16/opinion/16iht-edbonner16.html?_r=0
In the last three years alone, using this strategy, the Mexican government has captured or killed
over 40 major cartel leaders; key players who are not easily replaced. Several of the cartels have
already been severely weakened or destroyed.