Texas Cop Joins Ranks of Those Falsely Arrested, Extorted by Mexican Local Police

MEXICO-CRIME-MASS GRAVE
FILE PHOTO: Pedro PARDO/AFP/Getty Images

Breitbart Texas traveled to the Mexican States of Tamaulipas and Coahuila to recruit citizen journalists willing to risk their lives and expose the cartels silencing their communities.  The writers would face certain death at the hands of the various cartels that operate in those areas including the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas if a pseudonym were not used. Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles are published in both English and in their original Spanish. This article was written by Coahuila’s “JM Martinez” and Breitbart Texas’ Ildefonso Ortiz.

PIEDRAS NEGRAS, Coahuila — Two American citizens, including a Texas cop, who traveled to this Mexican border town for a baseball game ended up getting falsely arrested and became the victims of extortion at the hands of Mexican police. The bribe to get out of jail ended up being about $15.

Jose Leonardo Ibarra and his cousin Julio Rodriguez spoke exclusively with Breitbart Texas about their false arrest and the bribe that Mexican cops demanded from them. The two men had traveled from Eagle Pass into Piedras Negras to the “Mundo Gomez” field for a game of baseball, the friendly game took a sour turn when eight municipal police officers riding in two SUV’s came up to them, pointed their assault weapons at them and told them they were under arrest.

The police officers claimed that they were carrying out an operation targeting public drunkenness and the two Americans were drunk. The men claimed that they were not and one stated that he suffered from diabetes and had not had a drink in over two years. Despite the lack of evidence, the two men were arrested at gunpoint and taken to the Piedras Negras Police Station where they were held for more than three hours. At the station they were told that the physician on duty who carried out the drunkenness tests was out to lunch and everyone had to wait. 

Ibarra who has been a police officer with Eagle Pass police demanded that they notify the American Consulate as required by international law. The Mexican cops told him to shut up, the victim said.

When the physician arrived to the station he stated that the men did not appear to be drunk and signed a document stating so. The two victims never got a copy of the document. One of the men was escorted outside of the police office where one of the police officers demanded $200 pesos or about $15 dollars to let them go. Not knowing much about the Mexican legal system the two men paid the extortion and returned to the U.S. The following day, the two men went back to file a legal complaint with Coahuila State authorities. In Coahuila, the municipal police is regulated by the Mayor’s office, which is tasked with training and anti-corruption measures.

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