CNN
November 20, 2008
A vicious turf war between drug cartels and Mexican authorities that has left as many as 4,300 dead so far this year may have caused a breach in the internal security systems of Interpol, the international police organization.
- A d v e r t i s e m e n t
Interpol, which is based in France, announced Wednesday it is sending a team of investigators to Mexico to investigate the possibility that its communications systems and databases are not being used for legitimate law enforcement purposes. The prospect was raised after the arrest of the top official working with the agency in the country.
Ricardo Gutierrez Vargas, director for International Police Affairs at Mexico’s Federal Investigative Agency and the head of Mexico’s Interpol office, was placed under house arrest Sunday, the attorney general’s office said Tuesday.
More than 30 officials have been arrested since July in connection with the anti-corruption Operation Limpieza, an ongoing investigation into information leaks by law enforcement officials to drug traffickers, said Niverda Amado, a government press secretary in Mexico City.
Gutierrez can be held for up to 40 days while authorities “obtain sufficient evidence to determine his probable responsibility,” the attorney general’s office said in a news release.
Rodolfo de la Guardia Garcia, a former top official at the Federal Investigative Agency, also is under 40-day house arrest. He was arrested October 29.
Mexico’s Interpol office, or National Central Bureau, is staffed and run by the Federal Investigative Agency.
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