By Michael Marizco
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
December 10, 2003
http://www.azstarnet.com/border/31210nogaleschieffollow.html
NOGALES, SONORA - The federal government is planning to arrest more officials
in the Nogales, Sonora, administration as part of an investigation that has
already led to the arrest of the police chief, a city official said Tuesday.
Chief Jose Basilio Obeso Montoya was arrested Monday on charges stemming from a November incident in which one of his officers confronted him for releasing known marijuana traffickers arrested the week before, said Demetrio Ifantopulos, the city administrator.
In that incident, the officer, Cmdr. Jose Guillermo Duarte Astorga, asked the police chief why he had released four known traffickers picked up by Nogales police Nov. 7, said Astorga's attorney, Juan Diego Pineda.
The traffickers were to be turned over to federal investigators, and when Astorga went to the chief to ask why they weren't, he was suspended and had his gun taken away.
Astorga went public with his complaints, telling Mexico newspapers that officers had threatened to kill him.
Astorga went to the Mexican Attorney General's Office and reported what had happened, Pineda said.
An investigation was opened into whether Montoya was involved with drug traffickers and a federal warrant was issued for his arrest.
Montoya is in a Nogales, Sonora, federal prison on suspicion of associating with known criminals, insubordination, abuse of authority and making false statements.
Three others, a current police officer and two former police officials, were also arrested Monday as part of the investigation.
Federal investigators are staying silent on the investigation, Ifantopulos said.
"They never talked with us about the investigation," he said, though the federal investigators told him Montoya has to be officially charged or released by Sunday.
"There are still others from this administration being investigated," Ifantopulos said, though he declined to say who those officials might be.
Meanwhile, the assistant police chief, Mario Uribe Monzon, is serving as chief
of police until Montoya's outcome is settled.