Feb 24, 2012

Drug War and Rule of Law: Search for escaped Zetas; prison staff on Zeta payroll

La Jornada: "Federal and state authorities in Coahuila, Tamaulipas and Veracruz states have established a government alert, which includes the installation of checkpoints, given their suspicion that the 30 members of Los Zetas, who escaped from the prison in Apodaca, Nuevo Leon, last Sunday, might have fled to these states. Ten of those involved in the killing of 44 inmates have been identified, officials of the federal government and Nuevo Leon announced.

According to the Attorney General of Nuevo Leon, the prison managers and custodians were in the service of the Zetas, receiving payments. The former prison director, Geronimo Miguel Andres Martinez, received 30,000 pesos a month ($2,300 US), and his subordinates received from 10,000 to 15,000 pesos ($770 to $1,150US). Guards, who receive a salary of six thousand pesos ($460US) a month, got 5 thousand pesos ($350US).

A source close to the investigation revealed that, according to testimony obtained from those involved in the leak, the main organizer of the execution of 44 inmates and the escape of 30 members of Los Zetas was the chief guard, Oscar Deveze Laureano.

... The former warden of Apodaca, Geronimo Miguel Andres Martinez Andres Martinez, who is under investigation for the escape, was removed from a similar position in 2009 because, as director of the Santa Martha Acatitla prison, he reputedly allowed a group of kidnappers and extortionists, the gang of Giovanni Bautista Rodriguez, to operate from the prison. He was never charged criminally." Spanish original

No comments:

Post a Comment