Forty-three state police officers in the Mexican border state of Tamaulipas have been suspended. They are under investigation for having turned their police station into a bar and being drunk on the job. The scandal comes at a time when Tamaulipas continues to experience rising levels of cartel violence, and state police officers have been accused of not acting against cartel gunmen.
The scandal began on Monday, early morning, when high-ranking officials with the Tamaulipas state police arrived at the police station in the town of Burgos and found dozens of officers who were drinking at the station or already intoxicated. As a result of the visit, state officials suspended the 43 officers assigned to that station.
In the aftermath of the scandal, the head of the Tamaulipas Public Security Secretariat, Carlos Arturo Plancardo Escudero, said the case was under investigation and that, so far, they had not been able to determine whether the officers were, in fact, drunk, as a way to downplay the situation. He added that internal affairs were reviewing the case, and if the officers had violated any rules or laws, they would act accordingly.
Despite the feigned surprise by Tamaulipas officials, officers drinking and having parties at the station in Burgos is not a new event; police regional coordinator Irma Martinez Ramirez had previously caught officers drinking at the station and had confronted them. Soon after, she saw officers from another station in San Fernando also drinking at the station and having parties. Due to the pressure from her investigations, officers from both San Fernando and Burgos held a protest claiming that Martinez Ramirez had ties to organized crime.
Due to the pressure from the protests and internal pressure within the police department, Martinez Ramirez took a leave of absence from her post earlier this month. However, just a week into leave, internal affairs officials inspected Burgos.
The station in Burgos had been built in recent years as part of a plan to increase police presence in the state’s rural regions, where cartel activity is more prevalent. However, in recent months, Tamaulipas state police officers have avoided mainly directly clashing with cartel gunmen, something that has sparked much outrage among locals.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart News Foundation. He co-founded Breitbart News Foundation’s Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com.
Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart News Foundation’s Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com.
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