Mexico Says Sinaloa Cartel Ordered Killing Of Federal Police Chief

POSTED: 10:52 pm PDT May 12, 2008
UPDATED: 11:22 pm PDT May 12, 2008


MEXICO CITY -- A police officer and four other suspects with ties to a powerful drug cartel have been arrested in the assassination of Mexico's acting federal police chief, authorities said Monday.

The five -- three men and two women -- belonged to a criminal cell acting on the orders of the Sinaloa drug cartel, said Gerardo Garay, the anti-drug coordinator for the federal police. Police captured all five suspects hours after the assassination of Edgar Millan Gomez on Thursday.

The alleged leader of the group, Jose Antonio Montes Garfias, had been assigned to a federal police unit in the northern state of Sinaloa since February, though he was on medical leave during that period and never reported to work, Garay said. He is suspected in the killing of another federal police officer just days before Millan's death.

Millan was one of at least four high-ranking officers killed since May 1 in attacks the government has blamed on gangs resisting its crackdown against drug trafficking. The assassinations have prompted stepped up calls from the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush for Congress to approve a US$1.4 billion proposal to help fight drug crime in Mexico and Central America.

Garay said a lone hit man waited inside Millan's Mexico City home and gunned him down shortly after the officer opened the door and turned on the lights. Millan's bodyguards immediately captured the alleged hit man, Alejandro Jimenez, and the other four suspects were tracked down hours later, Garay said.

Millan was responsible for coordinating drug trafficking operations between federal police and recently announced the arrest of 12 suspected hit men tied to the Sinaloa cartel. He was named acting chief March 1 after his superior was promoted to a deputy Cabinet position.

Garay said Montes Garfias had suspected ties to top Sinaloa cartel leaders known as the Beltran Leyva brothers, although he refused to give any evidence, citing security reasons. One of the brothers, Alfredo Beltran Leyva, was arrested in Sinaloa state in January.

Since taking office in 2006, President Felipe Calderon has sent more than 25,000 troops to drug hotspots. Cartels have responded with unprecedented violence, beheading police and killing soldiers. Drug-related violence killed more than 2,500 people last year alone in Mexico.

The Bush administration reiterated its appeal Monday for Congress to approve the law enforcement aid package known as the Merida Initiative.

"We are shocked by the escalating violence against Mexican law enforcement officials," said U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack, calling recent attacks "a brutal reaction to President Calderon's determination to fight organized crime."

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