Exposed: ‘Prison Riot’ That Led to Slaughter of 44 Rival Cartel Members Acted as Cover for Prison Break
- Posted on February 21, 2012 at 8:09am by
Jonathon M. Seidl
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MONTERREY, Mexico (AP) — Nine guards have confessed to helping Zetas drug gangsters escape from prison before other Zetas slaughtered 44 rival inmates, a state official said late Monday, underlining the enormous corruption inside Mexico’s overcrowded, underfunded prisons.
The top officials and as many as 18 guards at the Apodaca prison in northern Mexico had been detained under suspicion that they may have helped 30 Zetas escape during the confusion of a riot early Sunday in which 44 members of the rival Gulf cartel were bludgeoned and knifed to death.
A collage of the escaped Zeta drug cartel members. (LA Times via GOVERNMENT OF NUEVO LEON)
Nuevo Leon state public security spokesman Jorge Domene Zambrano said nine of the guards confessed to aiding the escape. He said it appeared the breakout happened before the deadly fight.
The massacre in this northern state was one of the worst prison killings in Mexico in at least a quarter-century and exposed another weak institution that President Felipe Calderon is relying on to fight his drug war.
Mexico has only six federal prisons, and so sends many of its dangerous cartel suspects and inmates to ill-prepared, overcrowded state penitentiaries. Drug trafficking, weapons possession and money laundering are all considered federal crimes in Mexico.
“The Mexican prison system has collapsed,” said Raul Benitez, a professor at Mexico’s National Autonomous University who studies security issues. “The prisons in some states are controlled by organized crime.”
Police hold back the relatives of inmates outside Apodaca correctional state facility as they try to get past the gates in Apodaca on the outskirts of Monterrey, Mexico, Sunday Feb. 19, 2012. (AP)
An increase in organized crime, extortion, drug trafficking and kidnapping has swelled Mexico’s prison population almost 50 percent since 2000. But the government has built no new federal prisons since Calderon launched an offensive against drug cartels when he took office in late 2006, leaving existing jails overcrowded.
Calderon’s administration has renovated three existing state prisons to use as federal lockups.
Built to hold about 185,000 inmates, the prison system nationwide now holds more than 45,000 above that capacity, according to figures from the National Public Safety System.
Of the 47,000 federal inmates in the country, about 29,000 are held in state prisons. That has drawn complaints from Nuevo Leon Gov. Rodrigo Medina and other state governors, who say their jails aren’t equipped to hold members of powerful and highly organized drug cartels.
The federal government counters that none of the escapes or mass killings have occurred at federal lockups, and it cites corruption on the state level, not overcrowding, as the main cause of the deaths and escapes.
“The constant element has been corruption in the control processes” at the prisons, said Patricio Patino, assistant secretary for the penitentiary system.
Prison employees say guards are underpaid, making them more likely to take bribes. And even honest guards are vulnerable to coercion: Many live in neighborhoods where street gangs and drug cartels are active, making it easy to target their families with threats.
The same can be said for Mexico’s municipal police forces, another weak flank in Calderon’s attack on organized crime. Thousands of local officers – often, entire forces at a time – have been fired, detained or placed under investigation for aiding drug gangs.
“Yesterday, Apodaca, tomorrow, any other (prison),” columnist Carlos Puig wrote in the newspaper Milenio.
Nuevo Leon’s governor said earlier Monday that the breakout would have been hard or impossible to stage without the help of prison authorities. Medina said no holes had been found in the perimeter walls of the prison in Apodaca, outside the northern city of Monterrey, and no armed gang had burst in to spring them.
“Unfortunately, a group of traitors has set back the work of a lot of good police,” Medina said at a news conference.
An increase in prison violence and escapes is fueled in part by the increasing presence of members of highly organized drug cartels and other gangs in the prisons. In January, a fight between inmates in the Gulf Coast city of Altamira left 31 dead. A total of 171 inmates died in such violence last year, up from 45 in 2007, according to the newspaper Milenio.
Often, the riots and escapes are aided by authorities.
In the most striking case, prison corruption resulted in a massacre outside prison walls in 2010. Guards and officials at a prison in Gomez Palacio in northern Durango state let cartel inmates out, lent them guns and sent them off in official vehicles to carry out drug-related killings, including a massacre of 17 people at a rented dance hall. After carrying out the killings, the inmates returned to their cells, where they were safe from their rivals.
More typical was a prison massacre last July in the border city of Juarez that killed 17 inmates. Surveillance video showed guards standing passively by as two inmates took their keys and opened cell doors to spray bullets into a room where members of a rival gang were reportedly holding an unauthorized party, complete with women and booze.
The Zetas, with their quasi-military discipline, probably have an edge on their rivals from the Gulf cartel, said Benitez, the professor who studies security.
“Once inside, they gain control rapidly,” he said.
The Zetas and Gulf cartel split in 2010 and have been fighting bloody turf battles in Monterrey and throughout much of northeastern Mexico since then.
But Benitez said Mexico’s prisons are part of two larger problems: rampant corruption and a dysfunctional justice system.
“The prison system is just one part of the larger penal-justice system, and in Mexico the penal reform movement is going very badly,” he said.
Authorities agreed there are huge problems.
“The shortcomings that exist in Mexican prisons, insufficient food, inadequate space to sleep, (poor) clothing for inmates, bad medical service, have made the prisons into places where corruption and inequality among inmates proliferates,” according to a 2008 report on the nation’s prisons, the federal Public Safety Department said
The report recommended legal changes to let more prisoners await trial while on bail, and the construction of more and better jails. Three years and hundreds of inmates deaths later, none of those changes have been carried out.
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Marsh626
Posted on February 22, 2012 at 2:23amRemember when Obama mocked right-wingers saying we wanted the border fence to also have a moat? I fail to see the humor in preventing these savages from invading our country…
Report Post »glassaudioguy
Posted on February 21, 2012 at 9:44pmOne other aspect you’re forgetting- Mexico has no death penalty, so of course their prisons are going to be over-run. If they hadn‘t caved to the internationalistas and would actually put some of these guys before the firing squad perhaps things wouldn’t be so bad.
Report Post »RykerWrite
Posted on February 21, 2012 at 6:25pmThis is unfortunate. If the4 United States could have sent them more guns — “Fast and Furious”, they would not have had to use knives.
Report Post »babylonvi
Posted on February 21, 2012 at 6:01pmMexico is a failed state. Oil and all, without money flowing back from illegals in the U.S. it would completely go under.
Report Post »SilentReader
Posted on February 21, 2012 at 5:58pmYes. It is terrible that a few guards can be bought off and it taints all of the other honest guards and causes this massacre!
Corruption is a horrible thing when trust is at jeopardy and lives are at stake because of the fallen few.
Report Post »mastercabinetman
Posted on February 21, 2012 at 4:45pmThe Mexican Gov. is full of corrupt officials. From the top on down. Follow the money trail, looks just like our problem. They are ruthless, life has no meaning
Report Post »Rowgue
Posted on February 21, 2012 at 1:13pmLol mexico has known cartel members in high ranking political offices, and get more every election cycle. The government itself is controlled by the cartels. Pretending they are a civilized society or that they have a legitimate government is about as idiotic as you can get.
Report Post »DYNA
Posted on February 21, 2012 at 11:24amAnd the Democrats stood up and praised the president of Mexico for every suggestion and criticism he would make towards the USA.
There should be a sanctuary for the USA taxpayers to protect them from paying taxes to subsidize the illegal sanctuary cities.
Report Post »sjohn70037
Posted on February 21, 2012 at 11:03amAs long as it’s mexicans killing mexicans who cares? They’ll make more.
Report Post »TORCH9
Posted on February 21, 2012 at 12:02pmExactly!!
Report Post »Gumbercules
Posted on February 23, 2012 at 4:52amWho else wants to dance the ‘Mexican hat dance’ in celebration with me?
Report Post »Listen_then_think
Posted on February 21, 2012 at 10:49amLove how all the mexico cops cover their faces. Another example of why I detest big city police, absolute power corrupts absolutely. I think small town police are doing their job to help their neighbors they live with. Big city cops are on the take and power trips, in my opinion. I say that because every time in my 46 years of life I have tried to get help from a cop, I have been ignored or been the target of their anger. No, I don’t have any type of criminal record or even a parking/speeding ticket. Just my observation so far.
Report Post »Gumbercules
Posted on February 23, 2012 at 4:55amUm . . . they do it because they and their families are targets of the gangs if they are identified. They may be bought by the cartel, but it doesn’t mean they are legitimately part of the cartel. It’s for their own protection – good cop or bad cop.
Report Post »JACKTHETOAD
Posted on February 21, 2012 at 10:01amI’ll bet when Canadiens pray, they thank God that we’re between them and Mexico.
Report Post »RJJinGadsden
Posted on February 21, 2012 at 10:10amYeah, but the rest of the world’s miscreants have inserted a funnel into Canada.
Report Post »Ruler4You
Posted on February 21, 2012 at 10:35amNah. Mexicans don’t want to go to Canada. They require ID up there to enter the country. And to work. Their welfare system isn’t as full of holes as ours. And Mexicans want to confiscate the SW U.S. because it has been turned into a paradise, thanks to Americans.
Mexico “IS” corrupt. Top to bottom. Side to side in all directions. The “guards” had most likely all had their families lives threatened. Maybe they were ‘paid’ (besides living another day), too.
Also, MONTERREY, “IS” where the Security and Prosperity Partnership Shipping and Freight will originate or terminate into the U.S., when it is completed. It would be good to know that the drugs are properly controlled until they reach your neighborhood dealer.
Report Post »2theADDLED
Posted on February 21, 2012 at 1:52pmI.D. is required and a clean criminal record no felony‘s to even enter Canada plus they wouldn’t fit in with all the Middle Eastern’s. Middle Eastern’s and Asians usually come in through Canadian border.
Report Post »RJJinGadsden
Posted on February 21, 2012 at 9:37amI just can’t wait. This coming Spring will bring us the month of May soon, and not really those May flowers. We will be inundated with media reports celebrating Cinco De Mayo with more illegal immigrants screaming at us that we are not doing enough to take care of them. If you illegal aliens had any real brass you would imulate, and honor those heroes by organizing, returning to your homes and forcing these criminals out of YOUR country. That is something that I could really expect you for, instead of acting like water and flowing in the path of least resistance with your hands out for even more free care. Warning to you illegals, this will have to start with your balls.
Report Post »RJJinGadsden
Posted on February 21, 2012 at 9:43amShould have been clear when regarding “heroes.” This describes the peasants who rose up against French and helped to expel them from Mexico. This why a Mexican beer company brought this non-holiday to this country. Naturally to sell more beer.
Report Post »Another thing too. How do you illegals feel just being used by the Dems and the left in general? Yeah, used. Used to help fill numbers in many of the Census scams, used for votes because they buy you off so cheaply.
SpankDaMonkey
Posted on February 21, 2012 at 9:12am.
NEWS FLASH this just in,
Dateline Washington D.C.
The Obama Administration upset over the loss of 44 Votes!!!!!……….
Report Post »Darla_K
Posted on February 21, 2012 at 9:04amThis government in Mexico is so dirty they stink. We need to send troops to our border and stop every last illegal from stepping onto our land. Next we need to send the bill to Mexico‘s president for all the tax payer money that went for taking care of their people whom they cannot or won’t take care of. I would like to see the “fast and furious” thugs stand in the public square and face the American people for their lying cheating ways. I wonder how long it will be before our Country is this dirty?
Report Post »goldmind
Posted on February 21, 2012 at 9:09amIt is quite dirty now, Darla.
Report Post »2theADDLED
Posted on February 21, 2012 at 1:57pmIf we were supplying arms to the citizens it wouldn’t have been as bad as supplying the Cartels.
Report Post »goldmind
Posted on February 21, 2012 at 8:53amClose what border? Those border days, are long gone. The invasion is complete, and we have been blindly infiltrated. Now…it’s time to watch all the friendly cartels from the Russians on down, methodically eradicate our way of life. Sorry, they have the bigger guns and the determination and the will to see it through. As always, the complacent American society, has dropped the ball. Game over. This is what happens when you allow media to become your sentry. Hope to see lots of smiling faces when the bloodbath commences.
Report Post »garygromele
Posted on February 21, 2012 at 8:46amCall me a cynic here but I wonder how many of the “escapees” were under/connected to our U.S. investigation of the “Fast and Furious” debacle? You know, witness purging…
Report Post »Gary_K
Posted on February 21, 2012 at 8:44amI would like to know how many of our elected officials, both state and fed, are directly involved in drug running or are being paid off.
Report Post »ashtongramp
Posted on February 21, 2012 at 3:25pmIt’s just a matter of time until our government is blackmailed or threatened to cooperate. I would not doubt that there are a bunch that already are down by the border. Little by little it will soon destroy us all. That is why the USA need to have a spine and enforce our laws. And they need to consistently teach the police how to find and how to fend off corruption.
Report Post »StrongViolentType
Posted on February 21, 2012 at 8:35amBunch of animals headed to a City near you.
If this doesn’t convince everybody to close the border nothing will.
Report Post »SoupSandwich
Posted on February 21, 2012 at 9:43amThey (cartel thuggies) come and go at will and we take a few token frijoles here and there, but ask anyone in a border state that speaks English as a primary language and it is a little different than what is “reported”. But the good part is while the O admin rapes our market and dollar even more, less and less want to come and push out anchor babies at least. You should hear AM radio in DC- 65% spanish with some korean and japanese and french thrown in. Pretty cool to not hear much English in our “capitol”. Fun times.
Report Post »Gonzo
Posted on February 21, 2012 at 8:28amThat government has completely lost control.
Report Post »oeaoho
Posted on February 21, 2012 at 8:21amThe only reason the broke out is so they can go to the U.S. and work.
Report Post »StrongViolentType
Posted on February 21, 2012 at 8:32amIf by work you mean selling drugs, kidnapping, murder, sedition, etc. – then yes.
Report Post »Close the border NOW!
USPATRIOT101
Posted on February 21, 2012 at 8:46amDue to the lack of work, many don’t even try to cross the border. That just leaves a higher consentration of criminals on their way..
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