MONTERREY, Nuevo Leon – Another group of border state cops are accused of raiding stash houses and selling seized drugs on the side. The officers reportedly have a working relationship with a faction of Los Zetas Cartel.
The officers are part of Nuevo Leon’s Fuerza Civil police force, which in recent months has fallen under a cloud of corruption that reaches its highest officials. Breitbart Texas consulted with U.S. law enforcement officials working in Mexico about the cartel infiltration into Fuerza Civil and learned about at least a dozen officers with reported ties to criminal organizations.
In one of the most recent cases, Fuerza Civil officers raided the homes of street-level drug dealers and extorted them for cash. Those who could not pay faced arrests and asset seizures. However, some of the victims began to speak out and filed formal charges against the rogue police. The complaints triggered an investigation that already led to the arrests of two officers.
During the investigation, authorities searched the locker of Edgar Alfonso Rodriguez Moreno, where they found an unregistered 9mm handgun, several packages of crystal meth, jewelry, liquor bottles, and IDs and credit cards under different names. Rodriguez Moreno is the same officer who was arrested in 2018 with 134 packets of cocaine. He still managed to keep his job on the force. At the time of that arrest, the cop flashed his badge, which authorities used as part of the mugshot.
Authorities also searched the locker belonging to Rodriguez’s partner, Carlos Alfredo Barrientos Rodriguez. In the locker and the cop’s police vehicle marked unit FC-1955, authorities found more meth, cash, and an air rifle. Both officers are currently jailed at the Apodaca state prison on charges of home invasion, abuse of power, theft, and street-level drug trafficking. Another unnamed officer is still under investigation. Intelligence from U.S. law enforcement sources identify both cops as having ties to the Cartel Del Noreste (CDN) faction of Los Zetas in Nuevo Leon.
Rather than express interest in the corruption within his ranks, Nuevo Leon’s Public Security Secretary Aldo Fasci sent memos and expressed concern about leaks. Fasci only acknowledged the locker searches.
Fuerza Civil was linked to previous extortion cases where they raided homes belonging to active or former drug dealers. In one case reported exclusively by this outlet, surveillance video captured officers ransacking a property as they searched for cash and threatened the homeowners.
In February, Breitbart Texas reported on the federal drug trafficking arrest of Fuerza Civil’s former intelligence chief Victor Manuel Pecina.
During Aldo Fasci’s administration, Fuerza Civil was linked to other cartel kidnappings by police officers, in addition to throwing a suspect off a high-rise tower.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ 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 Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com.
Tony Aranda from Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project contributed to this report