| | |  News Around the Republic of Mexico | March 2009 
Mexican Military Captures Suspected Drug Trafficker, Detains 53 Others
 Sandra Dibble - San Diego Union-Tribune
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| | Ángel Jácome Gamboa, whose arm was in a sling yesterday, is believed to be linked to the drug trafficking organization headed by Teodoro Eduardo García Simental. (David Maung) | |
Tijuana – The arrest of a high-ranking drug trafficker by the Mexican military early Sunday has led to the detention of at least a dozen state and municipal law enforcement officers suspected of cooperating with organized crime, authorities said Monday.
Ángel Jácome Gamboa, a former soldier and ex-Rosarito Beach Police officer nicknamed El Kaibil, was one of 54 people taken into custody when the Mexican military raided a girl's 15th-birthday celebration at a social hall in eastern Tijuana.
Two state law enforcement officers were among those arrested at the party, while six others were subsequently detained, authorities said. In addition, four members of the Rosarito Beach Police Department were taken into custody Monday morning after being summoned to a City Hall meeting.
The detentions represent a major blow to the notoriously brutal drug trafficking organization headed by Teodoro Eduardo García Simental, said Gen. Alfonso Duarte Mugica, commander of the Second Military Zone in Baja California. García was a former lieutenant in the Arellano Félix drug cartel who broke off from the group last year and has been fighting for control of the region's drug trafficking routes.
Jácome oversaw the transit of drugs through Rosarito Beach and has been linked to the deaths of 12 Rosarito Beach police officers, said Rommel Moreno Manjarrez, Baja California's attorney general.
Dressed in black and with his right arm in a sling, Jácome was ordered to pose with 57 detainees being held at the Morelos Military Base on Monday. At the time of his arrest, Jácome was carrying a 9 mm pistol whose gold handle bore the image of La Santa Muerte, a death cult figure, the military said in a statement.
Among those in custody were four kidnapping suspects, including a former state agent and two 18-year-old women. Information obtained from the suspects detained at the party led soldiers to a safe house, where they found a 42-year-old businessman, the military said. In an interview at the base, the man showed his maimed and bandaged hand: the kidnappers had cut off his left little finger after a ransom was delayed.
Jácome was among 26 of the detainees who confessed to having ties to organized crime, including the two state officers, Duarte said. They were identified as Daniel Flores Ramos, a member of the state preventive police, and Ricardo Flores Villar Escobedo, a member of the state ministerial police.
The other detainees included waiters, barmen and security personnel for the Mezzanine social hall. Their family members waited outside the base for information. It will be up to federal prosecutors to determine whether they will face charges, Duarte said.
Jácome is a former member of the Mexican military who joined the Rosarito Beach Police Department in 2002. He was a supervisor by the time he left voluntarily in March 2006, Mayor Hugo Torres said.
Jácome is suspected of participating in the December 2007 attempt to kill Rosarito Beach's secretary of public safety, Jorge Eduardo Montero. A bodyguard was killed in the attack.
Monday morning, members of the Federal Police drove four Rosarito Beach officers into the Morelos base. Those included Fernando Ceja Macias, a 54-year-old assistant chief with 28 years in the department. Ceja said he was detained when he showed up for a meeting. “The aim is to clean all this up,” Ceja told reporters, avowing his innocence.
At a news conference, the possibility that some of the detained law enforcement officers had been assigned as bodyguards for Baja California Gov. José Guadalupe Osuna Millán was raised by reporters who recognized several of the officers among the detained suspects.
Francisco Blake Mora, Baja California's secretary general, said that at present none of the detained officers “is assigned as the governor's bodyguard.” |
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