Mexican Police Linked to Tijuana Cartel

Sting Operation Nets 41 Officers Suspected of Selling Information to Drug Dealers

By Mary Jordan and Kevin Sullivan
Washington Post Foreign Service

Friday, April 12, 2002; Page A21

MEXICO CITY, April 11 -- The 41 policemen detained Wednesday in northwestern Mexico, including top officers from Tijuana and Tecate, were snared in a sting operation that officials said today signaled the continuing disintegration of the violent Tijuana drug cartel.

The police officers were being questioned for selling information to the cartel. Until recently, the cartel headed by the Arellano Felix brothers operated with near impunity in and around Tijuana, moving billions of dollars of cocaine into the United States.

The detained officers include many of the highest-ranking police officers in Baja California state, including the commander of daily operations in the Tijuana city police force, the police chief of Tecate and those in charge of homicide and kidnapping units.

Cartel members are believed to have killed hundreds of people since the 1980s, but rarely were their actions punished. Some of the officers are believed to have been trained by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Mexican officials said tonight.

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