CORRUPTION

Mexico Arrests Former Top Cop on Torture Charges

Luis Cardenas Palomino has also been accused of accepting bribes from El Chapo’s drug cartel.

Mexico’s former Federal Police commander Luis Cardenas Palomino has been arrested on torture charges dating to almost a decade ago. Cardenas Palomino was the right-hand man of former security secretary Genaro García Luna, who is being held on drug trafficking charges in the United States. Both men have also been accused by U.S. prosecutors of accepting bribes from El Chapo’s Sinaloa cartel. García Luna is currently awaiting trial in New York while Cardenas Palomino remains in Mexico. He was arrested near Mexico City on charges that he tortured a kidnapping suspect in 2012. It’s unclear if he will be extradited but if so, he would be a key witness in García Luna’s trial, according to the Associated Press.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said the widespread corruption in the federal police played a role in his decision to abolish the force in 2019. Some of the officers were sent to the National Guard.