Photo: ALFREDO ESTRELLA/ / AFP / Getty Images
Some federal police officers responsible for security at the Mexico City Airport had a double job: taking care of the users of that terminal and helping the business of the Sinaloa Cartel and the Beltrán Leyva Organization.
This was revealed by former federal police officer Raúl Arellano Aguilar, who narrated in the Eastern District Court in New York part of his work between 2003 and 2011, including having noticed a “strange order” that was given to officers at least once or twice. per week, for one or two hours.
The officers of the Mexican federal Police had to attend a 45 by 35. The 45 is the code to identify an “order from a superior command”, while the 35 was “remain pending until further order”.
The former Mexican officer said that this meant that, for at least one or two hours, the police had to remain in the assigned place, but without stopping or searching anyone.
“We couldn’t detain anyone, just show up,” Arellano Aguilar said at the trial of Genaro García Luna, the former Mexican public security secretary accused of drug trafficking who is facing trial in a Brooklyn court.
“Some colleagues ignored the order, withdrew and had no problem,” he said. “It coincided with flights from Central America and departures to North America and Europe.”
He discovered that these compañeros formed a kind of “special group” that had certain privileges, such as being late or absent without problem, in addition to seeing them meet at mealtimes, wear jewelry, and have cars that cost the $8,000 pesos a month for a police officer. then I couldn’t buy.
Arellano Aguilar said that those officers from the “special group” returned to their posts after the “strange order”, happy that suitcases 7-9 (or 79) and 40 had made it through. These codes are also part of police use, 7-9 is to alert about drugs and 40 about irregular money.
“They said that the suitcases had passed without problems,” he explained when questioned by the assistant prosecutor Marietou Diouf. “They were happy.”
He assured that he heard members of that “special group” mention that said suitcases belonged to the Sinaloa Cartel and the Beltrán Leyva Organization.
The witness said that he had left the Federal Police, which he joined to continue his father’s tradition, because he felt that the principles of the corporation had been “trampled” and “he was tired” of it.
He added that the commander at the time, Óscar Moreno Villatoro, was one of Luis Cárdenas Palomino’s people, another high-ranking federal police official.
Moreno Villatoro received visits from those responsible for security at other airports in the country, such as Tijuana, Monterrey, Guadalajara, the State of Mexico (Toluca) and Cancun.
He narrated that outside the office of Moreno Villatoro, the officers of the Mexico City Airport received the orders of the day, but on one occasion he saw that his police chief had a visit from the command of Toluca, he was carrying a briefcase, but that a colleague he hit it by accident and the briefcase fell out, exposing “dollars”. Moreno Villatoro received similar briefcases on several occasions from the different commands at the airport, the witness added.
The prosecutor questioned Arellano Aguilar about the command order and who benefited from those payments. He suggested that his bosses seemed “happy,” but when he said “Boss Genaro,” the defense objected, and Judge Brian Cogan upheld it.
The name of Ramón García Pequeño, another high command accused of drug trafficking close to García Luna, also came up.
The Sinaloa Cartel and the Beltrán Leyva Organization controlled the transfer of drugs and the transfer of money from the Mexico City Airport, according to the cooperators Sergio Villarreal Barragán, alias “El Grande”, but another of the cooperators, Israel Ávila also confirmed this, pointing out that Jesús “El Rey” Zambada was one of those who made sure of said operations.
When listing the names of some officers of the “special group”, the witness mentioned Guillermo Báez. The defense made another objection.
During this questioning, the lawyer César de Castro made several objections, but it was difficult for him to divert the ex-policeman Arellano Aguilar from his statements, who was transferred to Monterrey in 2011, the year in which he resigned from the Police.