With friends like this who needs enemies? It’s pretty well known by now that the Mexican drug cartels wield an immense amount of power. Knowing this it shouldn’t be too surprising to hear that some police stations have been holding kidnap victims for the drug cartels:
Several police officers in northern Mexico allowed a violent drug gang to hold kidnap victims in the local jail while ransom payments were being negotiated, an official has said.
Four police officers from Juárez, a suburb of the city of Monterrey, are being held pending further investigation, said Jorge Domene, the security spokesman for Nuevo León state.
The scandal came to light this week when state and federal police freed two kidnapping victims from jail cells in Juárez. Investigators believe that the victims were abducted by the extremely violent Zetas cartel and that the officers were working for the Zetas, Domene said.
So riddle me this. The police are given a monopoly on the initiation of force with the supposed goal being the protection of the citizenry. As the police have a monopoly on this “service” who is supposed to protect the people from the police when they switch sides? Another frightening thought to consider is the high likelihood that other police officers in Mexico are doing the same thing.