Mexico police detain their own commander at gunpoint ( in Ciudad Juarez )

BBC ^ | 8 August 2010 Last updated at 20:48 ET

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Police officers in Ciudad Juarez in northern Mexico detained their commander at gunpoint, accusing him of corruption and links to drug gangs.

More than 200 federal police agents raided the hotel where their commander was staying and accused him of planting drugs on police officers to blackmail them into carrying out extortion.

The commander has been suspended, pending an investigation.

Ciudad Juarez is the most violent city in Mexico and corruption is rife.

While some agents blocked off nearby streets to prevent their commander from escaping, others moved into the hotel where he was staying.

They raided his room, where they say they found weapons and drugs.

The federal officers allege that they were part of a stash, which their commander would plant on officers who refused to take part in his corrupt dealings.

They say he would then blackmail the agents into carrying out extortion and other crimes.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Kind of reminds me of the time, when my brother was in the Boy Scouts, that they had to carry off the dead drunk Scoutmaster. (The brother made Eagle Scout, though.)

[stefanbatory]

that could neeeeever happen here!

sarc

[jazusamo]

Sounds like the commander is kinda lucky to be alive so he can be investigated.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Well, I think the officers didn’t want to find themselves sent down the river for mutiny, so they kept the evidence alive.

[jwalburg]

American appetite for drugs fuels this corruption. Victimless crimes! Right.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Much of this is the relatively harmless marijuana. Relatively harmless, that is, until serious efforts were made to ban it.

[jazusamo]

Exactly, but I’d bet there was a lot of ticked off officers.

[Pining_4_TX]

Does it seem that Mexico is a failed state? I wonder if anyone is really in charge there, and that is way too close for comfort. We ought to be more concerned with what is happening there than on the other side of the world.

[Army Air Corps]

And craploads of crystal meth. A friend of mine works for ICE in El Paso and he’ll be the first to tell you that marijuana was long ago eclipsed by meth...among other things.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

They have had a ruling class for years..., but it seems to be coming unwound.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Amphetamines used to be a pretty private scandal as long as pharmacies carried them and hypochondriacs prevailed on sympathetic doctors for the prescriptions. Now they are getting scores killed, not by the drugs but by the crime.

[HiTech RedNeck]

I will admit, at least 60% of America will be “shocked, shocked!” when news bursts of “Massive Armed Invasion From Mexico Yesterday.”

[al baby]

Sounds like the city of bell Calif.

[Army Air Corps]

That, or they are primed for yet another revolt. There were a few in the early 20th century.

[ansel12]

Amphetamines used to be a pretty private scandal as long as pharmacies carried them and hypochondriacs prevailed on sympathetic doctors for the prescriptions.

They used to give great speed to housewives in the sixties, pure black mollies, Valium and Quaaludes were also given out like candy to the women of the time.

[NeverForgetBataan]

“Does it seem that Mexico is a failed state?”

To say that Mexico is a failed state is too generous because that implies that at some point it was functional.

Living with Mexico is like owning an MG. It’s just a day to day negotiation with what’s broken or is going to break. Mexico is and always has been a corrupt world cesspool that is “stable” only to a greater or lesser extent. The corruption will never go away because its in the very DNA of Mexicans.

[miliantnutcase]

The similarities between mexico and somalia are astounding.

[time4good]

The corruption will never go away because its in the very DNA of Mexicans.

I can attest to the other part of that picture. My wife is from Mexico City. Man, have I had a few arguments with her because of her ingrained pacifist attitudes - as in the middle class just accept the corruption, look the other way, pay the 'mordida' as a daily way of life and rarely stand up for justice. Unless, that is, when a child molester or rapist does something in a pueblo - then its mob vigilante justice and execution. Or, as in a few years ago when the kidnapping was touching the 'pretty' people - actors/actresses/politicians - then the people marched strong in D.F. and elsewhere shouting 'Basta!' (Enough!) - and then they quieted down again.

We watched Denzel Washington in "Man On Fire" when it came out. She was crying and I was flaming mad furious at the depth of corruption that ruins a society, a culture, a people.

[Cold Heart]

The valor and honesty of these officers can only be commended.