Jun.01, 2010

MEXICO CITY – The former director of Interpol Mexico, who is being held in prison, will be prosecuted on money laundering charges, the Attorney General’s Office said.

Rodolfo de la Guardia’s prosecution will move forward now that a criminal court has ruled in favor of the AG’s office, overturning a decision by a federal judge, prosecutors said.

De la Guardia has been held at the prison in Tepic, a city in the western state of Nayarit, since January 2009 on organized crime, drug and other charges.

Prosecutors allege that the former Interpol director was on the payroll of the Beltran Leyva cartel, one of the most violent criminal organizations in Mexico.

De la Guardia was in charge of assigning the heads of the field offices of the defunct AFI, Mexico’s equivalent of the FBI, allowing him to place agents the cartel had on its payroll in key posts, the AG’s office said.

The former Interpol director was paid $10,000 a month by the cartel for his services, the AG’s office said, adding that he has not been able to legally account for the money.

De la Guardia was arrested during “Operation Clean-Up,” which the government launched in March 2008 to root out corruption.

The Beltran Leyva cartel managed to infiltrate the security forces and put Noe Ramirez Mandujano, who served as Mexico’s drug czar, on their payroll.

Ramirez Mandujano was arrested in November 2008 during the operation, which targeted corrupt officials in the upper ranks of the Federal Police and AG’s office.

The former drug czar had been taking $450,000 monthly from drug traffickers, officials said.