Pubdate: Sun, 2 Nov 2008 Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA) Page: A - 18 Copyright: 2008 The New York Times Company Contact: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/388 Author: Marc Lacey, New York Times Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/Mexico Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/area/Mexico (Mexico) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Felipe+Calderon Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?236 (Corruption - Outside U.S.) MEXICO TARGETS CORRUPT BUREAUCRATS IN DRUG WAR Mexico City -- Many of the mug shots of drug traffickers that appear in the Mexican press show surly looking roughnecks glaring menacingly at the camera. An anti-corruption investigation unveiled last week in the Mexican capital, however, made it clear that not everybody enmeshed in the narcotics trade looked the part. There was a gray-haired, grandfatherly type who was pushing 70, as well as an avuncular figure with a neatly styled goatee and wire-rimmed spectacles perched upon his nose. Some of the five men, who found themselves on the front pages of newspapers on their way to jail, wore suits, which made them look more like bureaucrats than bad guys. Among the greatest challenges in Mexico's drug war is the fact that the traffickers fit no type. Their ranks include men and women, the young and the old. And they can work anywhere: in remote drug labs, as part of roving assassination squads, even within the upper reaches of the government. It has long been known that drug gangs have infiltrated local police forces. Now it is becoming ever more clear that the problem does not stop there. The alarming reality is that many public servants in Mexico are serving both the taxpayers and the traffickers. The men in suits, it turns out, were both bureaucrats and bad guys, corrupt officials high up in an elite unit of the federal attorney general's office who were feeding secret information to the feared Beltran Leyva cartel in exchange for suitcases full of cash. Their arrest, and the firing of 35 other suspect law-enforcement officials, represents the most extensive corruption case that this country, which knows corruption all too well, has ever seen. And it raises a question that is on the lips of many Mexicans: How does one know who is dirty and who is clean? "I'm convinced that to stop the crime, we first have to get it out of our own house," President Felipe Calderon, who has made fighting trafficking a crucial part of his presidency, said in a speech Tuesday, after the arrests were announced. That house is clearly dirty. There is ample evidence that Mexicans of all walks of life are willing to join the drug gangs in exchange for cash, including the farmers who abandon traditional crops and turn to growing marijuana and the accountants who hide the narco-traffickers' profits. There was sporadic evidence in the past that such corruption extended into high-level government offices. An army general who commanded Mexico's anti-drug unit was arrested and convicted in 1997 after the discovery that he was working for a drug lord on the side. In 2005, a spy working for a drug cartel was discovered working in the president's office and accused of feeding traffickers information on the movements of Vicente Fox, then the president. On Saturday, acting federal police Commissioner Gerardo Garay said he was stepping aside "to place myself at the orders of legal judicial authorities to clear up any accusation against me." Garay did not say what accusations he was referring to, nor were federal officials available to comment on the resignation. But the newspaper Reform reported Saturday that prosecutors are looking into whether the federal police assigned to the Mexico City airport had aided drug traffickers. Many prison wardens and guards have shown themselves to be corrupt, allowing prominent detainees not only to operate their crime networks from their cells, but also to use their illicit drug proceeds to be as comfortable as possible behind bars, paying for everything from pizza to prostitutes. The porous nature of Mexican penitentiaries has prompted Calderon to increase the number of transfers of drug lords to the U.S. prison system. Calderon is not the first president to try to root out corruption. President Ernesto Zedillo reorganized the nation's federal police at least twice; each time traffickers quickly infiltrated the force and bought off leading officials. His successor, Fox, tried and failed to clean up law enforcement as well. Calderon's efforts have been sustained enough that the traffickers have begun a vicious counterattack; so far this year, nearly 4,000 people - including police officers, soldiers, criminals and civilians - - have been killed in an extraordinary wave of violence linked to organized crime. The latest corruption scandal has prompted Calderon's attorney general to order a restructuring and purging of his office, and specifically the government organized-crime office known by the Spanish acronym SIEDO, which was shut down after being infiltrated by drug spies. The government has ordered more lie-detector tests for officials in delicate posts, beefed-up background checks and better salaries for underpaid police officers. But the amount of cash that the traffickers throw around - which Jorge Chabat, a security analyst, calls "enough money to buy part of the state" - makes government salaries seem laughable. Clearly, the government cannot compete peso for peso. In some cases, finding out who has strayed from the straight and narrow should be a simple matter of following the money. Miguel Colorado, a top SIEDO manager, is reported to have bought four luxury vehicles in one year. Expensive jewelry was found in his home. His bank account was bulging. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake