Mexican police work at a site in the desert believed to hold the remains of numerous victims of drug violence in the Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
A secret, elite Mexican task force discovered more than 150 corrupt police officers working under two payrolls: the government’s and the New Generation Jalisco Cartel’s. The task force in the Mexican central state of Guanajuato was staffed by former Mexican federal police officers trained in the U.S., Colombia, and México to tackle crimes such as cyber-terrorism, drug trafficking, and counterintelligence, according to the Guanajuato authorities. The secret operation started over a year ago after state government officials started noticing that municipal policemen were leaking information to criminals so they could elude arrest, a source inside the task force told Mexican news outlet Milenio. “They were criminals with uniforms,” Guanajuato state Security Secretary Sophia Huett said in a press conference this week. “These people disguised themselves as police officers and now they will get fired and will go to jail.”Guanajuato’s governor, Diego Sinhue Rodríguez Vallejo, said about the corrupt officers: “They not only are leaking information to criminals, but also they don’t attend to the citizens' call for help.”Last week two local police officers were murdered by alleged members of a cartel while on duty. During the first half of 2022 at least 25 policemen were killed in Guanajuato, according to official figures. Guanajuato has been at the top of Mexico’s most violent states for the last five months, with over 10 murders a day. The son of Celaya’s city mayor in the Mexican central state of Guanajuato was murdered by sicarios while parked outside a convenience store earlier this month. A few hours after the attack, alleged members of a drug cartel circulated a message on social media that claimed the assassination was due to the mayor breaking supposed promises, and threatened to kill more family members. The message was posted anonymously without any specific criminal organization attributing the attack. Guanajuato and the neighboring state of Jalisco were recently under siege for several hours after Mexico’s military attempted to arrest prominent Jalisco New Generation Cartel commander Ricardo Ruiz, aka "Doble R”.
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