EXCLUSIVE: Scandals, Coverups Led to Shootout Between Police Departments in Mexican Border State

A recent shootout between local and state police forces in Nuevo Leon demonstrate a history of corruption and scandals previously covered up by border state politicians.

Incidents including murder, homicide coverups, extortion, misuse of armored vehicles, and cartel infiltration have plagued the police department of the municipality of Juarez–a suburb on the eastern side of Monterrey. Breitbart Texas recently reported how state authorities dropped an investigation into a December 10, 2020, shootout where more than a dozen officers from Juarez clashed with state police after being caught extorting a human smuggling group. While no officers were injured, one of the Juarez policemen claimed to be under the protection of the Juarez Chief Colonel Teodoro Jaimes Martinez and Deputy Chief Lt. Luis Fernando Munoz Ortega.

Law enforcement sources in Mexico tell Breitbart Texas that the two top cops in Juarez have a history of scandals covered up by political figures tied to incumbent Mayor Heriberto Trevino Cantu of the Revolutionary Institutional Party (PRI).

In 2018, officials suspended Col. Jaimes Martinez, however, months later he was quietly reinstated.

One of the scandals took place when one of Jaimes Martinez’s bodyguards, Hiram Clemente Cruz, was strangled to death on the banks of a river. Initially, the police chief tried to pass off the case as an accident but an investigation by state authorities revealed the bodyguard was murdered. The matter is listed as a cold case. In a similar situation, Jaimes Martinez was probed by state authorities for hiding the disappearance of an 8-year-old girl in his jurisdiction. Authorities found the child days later strangled to death. The results of the investigation were never released.

Also in 2018, 50 police officers from Juarez walked out in protest after Jaimes Martinez and Munoz Ortega allegedly covered up cases to manipulate crime statistics. The officers also complained about lacking equipment despite the city’s sizable law enforcement budget.

After those scandals, Munoz Ortega was officially moved out of the position of deputy chief to lead the Juarez Police Academy. Sources claim he continues to act as Jaimes Martinez’s right-hand man, however.

The most recent scandal involving the shootout between police forces and the unwillingness of the Nuevo Leon government to continue the investigation into the matter appear to be linked to a political power struggle and alliances with the CDN-Los Zetas or Gulf Cartel.

Tony Aranda is a contributing writer for Breitbart Texas.