Police Charged in Death of Federal Official

The Attorney General's Office through its office in the state of Chihuahua filed criminal charges against members of the municipal police and the state police known as Cipol who are suspected in the murder of the federal public prosecutor Miguel Angel Meneses Maciel who was killed last week.

The police officers implicated in this crime were identified as Robert Garcia Jair Rey, Claudia Mercedes Ramirez Castaneda, Alberto Chairez Hernandez Arnulfo Padilla and Victor Manjarrez, who are police officers of the State Public Security "Cipol." Also charged were Jesus Ortega Eduardo Delgado Luis Delgado and Oscar Clemente who are police members of the Municipal Police.

In this regard, these six individuals were officially ordered to be apprehended for their responsibility in the commission of the crime of homicide, and were also held responsible for attempted murder, abuse of authority and tampering with evidence or facts at the crime scene.

They are said to be responsible for the death of federal prosecutor Miguel Angel Meneses Maciel who was head of the Bureau of Criminal Research in the capital city.

After performing the sufficient investigation, evaluating evidence at scene and consulting with ballistic experts, the attorney general office found sufficient evidence to assume the six officers were responsibility for the outcome of the incident, in some cases by firing their weapon during the incident, excessive use of force and tampering with evidence or facts at the crime scene.

It had been reported that Meneses Maciel had been found dead sitting in the driver's seat of his truck while holding a handgun. I initially found this odd and now I am wondering if the handgun and potentially other weapons were actually planted after the fact to give the impression that the victim was shooting back at officers. It was also reported that inside his vehicle were found other weapons, including long rifles.

Some statements from media sources had menioned that Meneses Maciel was simply trying to get away because he though he was being part of a "levanton" (kidnapping) by sicarios (hitmen) as he did not recognized them to be police authorities. You can read more about the incident in a previous post that can shed some light.

Knowing what sicarios do to federal agents when they are kidnapped, anyone with any common sense woud be doing everything in their ability to get away. Almost in every ocassion kidnapped victims from rival crime organizations or from law enforcement agencies are tortured and executed in some of the worst horrific ways imaginable.

It was noted that in regards to the participation of the ten military soldiers during the incident, the jurisdiction for investigation and prosecutions falls on the hands of the military, and the military has been made aware that information gathered and documented by the criminal investigation from state and municipal authorities has found evidence of military involvement.

Also with respect to the three civilians in company of Meneses Maciel, it was found that they were deprived of their freedom while falsely detained, since there was no reason to believe they had committed any crime.

Accordingly the defendants were turned over to the correctional facility of Aquiles Serdán at the disposal of a federal judge on duty, this is part of the initiatives from the Federal Government to restore confidence in the institutions which are responsible for providing justice and restore peace to the citizenship

Categories: mexican army, Mexican Crime, mexico, Miguel Angel Meneses Maciel, organized crime, police, police procedure, police tactics, war on drugs