Reynosa’s police chief arrested for allegedly protecting cartel, source says

REYNOSA -- A Mexican official said the police chief of Reynosa was arrested for allegedly protecting members of the violent gulf Cartel, The Associated Press reported Friday.

Quoting an anonymous Mexican official, the news agency said Reynosa Police Chief Juan José Muñiz will be questioned in Mexico City by federal authorities tasked with battling organized crime.

The arrest came shortly after the army inspected the local police force's weapons for the second time this year.

City officials said, however, in a news release that Muñiz was served an order demanding the he accompany a federal attorney and two federal police officers to the Mexico City offices of the Deputy Attorney General's Office for Special Investigation into Organized Crime (known by its Spanish acronym SIEDO).

City officials said Thursday that they were unsure whether Muñiz was taken for federal questioning as a suspect or witness.

"He was there this morning helping the soldiers," Reynosa city government spokeswoman Angélica Arredondo said in Spanish.

The incident comes months after violence erupted in the border city located just eight miles south of McAllen. In January, drug traffickers gunned down two federal police officers in the city's streets. Federal police officers had killed and captured several drug traffickers the day before in the city of Rio Bravo, east of Reynosa and across the border from Donna.

Later that month, Mexican President Felipe Calderon ordered soldiers to Reynosa to quell the violence and clamp down on drug trafficking. The soldiers have remained in Reynosa since then.

Soldiers first inspected local police weapons in January, investigating whether the guns were used against federal officers.

Federal agents have not told city officials why they took Chief Muñiz, said City Secretary Miguel Angel García Ahedo.

Reynosa authorities have contacted Tamaulipas Secretary of State Antonio Martínez Torres, requesting that he ask Mexico's attorney general about Muñiz's situation.

"What we can say is that (Muñiz) proceeded to go with these people, and as of now we don't know what his situation is," Garcia Ahedo said in Spanish in a news release.

Local authorities haven't suspended or fired the police chief, and they assured the people of Reynosa they would be safe.

Garcia Ahedo described the city as calm and vowed to continue working with federal and state authorities to police the city.

The federal agency believed to have taken Muñiz, SIEDO, refused to confirm his transfer. A source close to the investigation said SIEDO often withholds information about arrests for fear of jeopardizing an investigation.

Mexico's attorney general oversees SIEDO, which investigates organized crime such as the Tamaulipas-based Gulf Cartel and its military enforcers the Zetas.
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Monitor staff writer Zack Quaintance translated this report.
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Martha Leticia Hernandez covers general assignments for La Frontera. You can reach her at (956) 683-4846.