A former top Mexican federal police officer assigned to a key role in the fight against drug cartels was arrested on Monday on suspicion of torturing suspects in a 2012 kidnapping case, authorities said.
Luis Cardenas Palomino, who served as head of the federal police from 2010 to 2012, was placed down by former Security Secretary Henaro Garcia Luna, who was arrested in the United States in 2019 as US authorities accused him of bribery. to help the Sinaloa cartel.
Also Read:
- 3 killed on golf course after shootings
- Authorities have collected almost 50 bodies
- Air Force C-130 plane crash kills 50 people
Both had served for days in the presidency of Felipe Calderon. Calderon’s declaration of war on drugs was the catalyst for a crackdown on gangs fighting for territory and influence, the wave of violence that has claimed the lives of at least 300,000 people since 2006.
The charges against Cardenas and another former senior law enforcement officer were announced at the same time as the prosecution of Garcia Luna in October, although both remained unarrested.
The current president of Mexico, center-left Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, stressed during a press conference that Luis Cardenas Palomino was the “second” in the hierarchy only under Garcia Luna and stressed that his arrest underscores his zero tolerance for impunity.
Cardenas was arrested yesterday morning during a police search in Naucalpan, a northern suburb of the capital, the attorney general’s office said in a press release. No further details were given on the case in which the former top officer allegedly tortured suspects.
