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 News from Around the Americas | May 2005 
Guatemala Puts Border On Alert
 Wire services
| | After a drug trafficker wanted by U.S. officials escaped from a Mexico City prison, the Mexico-Guatemala border is being reinforced with extra security. |
Guatemala City - Guatemalan authorities issued an alert along the border with Mexico over the weekend after the alleged leader of a Guatemala-based drug trafficking group escaped from a jail in Mexico City.
Guards noticed Otto Roberto Herrera Garcํa was missing from a jail in southern Mexico City on Friday evening, prompting a futile all-night search.
"We circulated instructions to reinforce the border so that they are on alert for people who may look like Herrera, just in case he returns to Guatemala," said Erwin Sperinsen, director-general of Guatemala's federal police.
Herrera and his organization allegedly moved tons of cocaine each month from Colombia to the United States through El Salvador, Guatemala and Mexico before his arrest in April 2004, according to the U.S. State Department. The United States has requested Herrera's extradition on drug trafficking and organized crime charges.
Herrera ran his criminal organization out of a Guatemalan transportation company, according to Guatemalan authorities. In 2003, police searched Herrera's home in a luxurious neighborhood on the southern outskirts of Guatemala City, seizing US14 million.
In Mexico, Herrera's disappearance came after a series of embarrassing escapes and scandals in the prison system, which has been contending with pervasive corruption and security lapses.
The federal Attorney General's Office on Saturday detained 47 employees from the city jail where Herrera staged his escape, including the director.
Mexican authorities allege that Herrera had once been in communication with representatives of Colombia's Cali drug cartel and Mexican drug lord Ismael Zambada, who also is sought by U.S. authorities.
Authorities arrested Herrera last year as he arrived to meet his girlfriend at the Mexico City airport. Mexico has since arrested three of Herrera's associates that provided security and ran a Cancun businesses as a front for illegal transactions, the Attorney General's Office said. |
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