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Drug network uncovered in Mexico
( 2002-10-22 10:51 ) (7 )

Mexican authorities have uncovered a network of corrupt employees in the federal police, military and government who for years sold classified information to drug traffickers and organized crime groups, helping them avoid capture, the attorney general said Monday.

At least 25 current and former public officials have been detained and others are being investigated, said Mexico's attorney general Rafael Macedo de la Concha.

The corrupt employees "handed over privileged information from investigations to different cartels, which used the information to corrupt other dishonest public servants, and in this way they were able to act with impunity and escape justice," Macedo said.

The officials included current and former employees of the Federal Preventative Police, the military and the attorney general's office itself, he said.

They provided information to two major drug traffickers: Ismael Zambada, a trafficker based in the Pacific coast state of Sinaloa, and Vicente Carrillo Fuentes, leader of a once-powerful drug organization in the northern city of Juarez, Macedo said.

He also said investigations showed that corrupt officials had links to Juan Diego Espinoza, who Macedo said heads a drug gang active in Mexico and Colombia.

Macedo did not say exactly how much each employees received in bribes, but said their lavish lifestyles led investigators to believe that they were making large sums of money.

An official from a district attorney's office in Mexico City, identified as Elvia Ramirez Garcia, received $3,000 for each classified file she passed on, Macedo said.

The attorney general said authorities began to unravel the network a year ago when agents in Sinaloa found vehicles belonging to an employee of Zambada that contained classified documents.

Accompanying Macedo at the news conference was Public Safety Secretary Alejandro Gertz Manero and Defense Secretary Gen. Gerardo Vega Garcia.

Macedo said the investigation owed much of its success to a newfound cooperation between the three agencies that was forged under President Vicente Fox, who took office in December 2000 with a pledge to attack corruption.