Mexico presidential guardsman accused of dealing with drug cartels

An army officer in the Mexican presidential guard is accused of selling secrets about the movements of President Felipe Calderon to drug cartels, a government official has said. Army Maj. Arturo Gonzalez, who was arrested recently, allegedly received $100,000 a month to track the president for powerful Mexican drug gang leaders and is suspected of selling weapons to drug gangs and training their hit men, said the official, who asked not to be identified. "The major was part of the presidential guard and a protected witness said he received money to pass information about (the president's) official visits," the official said. Local media reported the drug gang leaders wanted information on Calderon's movements to ensure they were never in the same location as the president and his heavily armed guard. Gonzalez, whose arrest was announced on December 26 2008, was detained as part of "Operation Clean-up," which has netted several high-ranking officials accused of collaborating with the Beltran Leyva brothers, who split off from the Sinaloa cartel run by Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman. Most of the officials arrested recently are senior policemen, including Mexico's liaison to Interpol and the head of the country's organized crime unit. The presidential guard is a specialized army unit responsible for protecting the president and his family. Gonzalez's suspected collaboration with drug traffickers was revealed by a protected witness who was a member of the Beltran Leyva cartel, the government official said. Since taking office in 2006, Calderon has deployed thousands of troops and federal police to drug hot spots to take on the powerful cartels. The offensive by the government has failed to curb soaring drug violence. More than 5,300 people have been killed in 2008, more than twice as many as 2007, as traffickers fight each other and the government over drug smuggling routes. Calderon deployed the army to fight organized crime partly because soldiers have traditionally been seen as less corrupt than police. Military men across the ranks have said they too are being offered thousands of dollars to ignore drug shipments or tip off cartels. Recently, police found the beheaded and tortured bodies of eight soldiers in a town near Acapulco, their heads stuffed in a black plastic bag and tossed outside a shopping center.

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