Federal Police Officers were fighting over loot

Federal Police were fighting over loot in the DF airport

El Diario/Reforma. 7-6-2012. The shootout last June 25th in the capital city airport was due to a fight between agents fighting over the loot derived from drug trafficking, not from an operation to capture them, as was stated by Luis Cardenas Palomino, Chief of the Regional Security Division of the Federal Police.

According to new videos and testimony of the incident that Reforma (newspaper) had access to, in the fight where three federal police officers died, there were at least 10 agents involved, not 5, as had been asserted by the SSP (Department of Public Safety.)

That day after Flight 019 from Lima, Peru, had landed, which brought a package presumably containing cocaine, the videos show it is Officer Daniel Cruz Garcia who picks up the package in the bathroom and then goes up the escalator to the Immigration area.

The SSP's version identified him as  Zeferino Morales Franco.

On the images, sources say, the police officer can be seen going to different locations while walking against the normal flow of pedestrian traffic while talking on a cell phone. In this manner, he arrives at the last waiting areas,  a checkpoint called "Metro", then he loses himself in the public area of Terminal 2 without being detected by any authority.

A half hour later, a group of 6 agents are involved in a discussion in the airport's California Restaurant. The dispute, according to sources, is because they cannot come to an agreement over some "business deal." Those officers leave the restaurant and go the fast food area, a blind spot on the surveillance cameras. According to witnesses, it's right about the time of the disputes when the shooting breaks out and Josue Adan Matadamas Cota and Enrique de Jesus Pacheco Valdez, who was in civilian clothes and on his day off, are killed.

At the scene of the shooting, they find between 18 and 20 fired cases.

The cameras also show that seconds before, during and after the shooting, four other police officers who were in the hallways at the time arrived at the scene of the shootout.

In addition, while people were running in a panic, 2 police officers observed the incident calmly, never offering support and simply talking on their cell phones.

After the firefight, the cameras show that Morales Franco and Cruz Garcia escape through the stairways located beside the parking area and run towards Hangares Avenue, crossing the taxicab area. Despite this, according to official testimony, the rest of the persons involved descend using the main escalators in the main hallway and the stairways located under the California Restaurant, where there were also blood stains found.

After the shootout, the Federal Police opened files on the personnel assigned to the Mexico City International Airport (AICM).

According to public employees,  about 300 agents of the Division of Regional Security of the Federal Police come together in Terminals 1 and 2, officers whose job it is to detect the commission of federal crimes like drug trafficking.

Before the June 25 shootout, agents assigned to the terminal areas were simply routinely posted there and would show up at the command post before beginning their work.

However, after these incidents in which officers Josue Adan Matadamas, Fidel Rojas and Enrique de Jesus Pacheco were murdered by their fellow officers, the Federal Police rotated out part of the personnel assigned to the AICM and ordered files opened on all the agents.

Personnel from the central headquarters of the Federal Police showed up at the capital city airport, particularly at the parking area of the maintenance building where the federal police offices are located, to review the personal information, photographs, fingerprints, voice and even the DNA of every one of the agents.