Mexican Consul in U.S. Cited for Drunk Driving — No Arrest Due to Diplomatic Immunity

Reuters
Reuters

A Mexican consul in Georgia has been recently cited for drunken driving and other traffic violations. However, because the Mexican consular official assigned to Atlanta, Georgia, has diplomatic immunity, local police were forced to let him go with a DUI ticket. He is not the first one.

The traffic stop took place last week when a police officer from Roswell, Georgia, pulled over Ricardo Camara Sanchez over erratic driving, WSB-TV reported.

The officer noticed that the Camara’s vehicle had been swerving and drifting and tried to pull him over using his patrol’s lights and sirens, but the vehicle would not stop.

Once the Mexican consul stopped, “the officer approached the car and immediately noticed a strong odor of alcohol coming from the vehicle,” WSB quoted Roswell Police spokeswoman Lisa Holland.

Since Camara is a foreign diplomat, he has immunity so Roswell Police officers were not able to arrest him, they had to give him a citation and call him a taxi cab.

Mexico’s Embassy in the U.S. released a press statement claiming that “we trust that the investigation will be carried out in strict accordance with the applicable local and international guidelines. We remain attentive to the development and results of said investigation.”

Camara is not the first Mexican consular official that authorities have had to cut loose on DUI offenses.  In 2012, Roswell Police stopped Mariano Saynez who at the time worked as a vice-consul in Atlanta. Saynez is the son of a Naval Admiral by the same name. The younger Saynez was driving 91 miles per hour on zone with a 65 miles per house limit, WSB-TV reported at the time. According to that story, the admiral’s son had a .126 alcohol level and had urinated his pants at the time of the traffic stop.

Ildefonso Ortiz is an award winning journalist with Breitbart Texas you can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook.

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