![]() We just had to stand there,” said Arellano, who appeared in court in a gray, three-piece suit and a lime-green shirt. “We couldn’t conduct searches, detain anyone – nothing. Once or twice a week, almost always after an arrival from South America or a departure for Europe or North America, every police officer on duty received the same coded order by radio: “By 45, everyone on 35.” The 45 code meant an order from a superior, and the 35 code indicated “on standby.” In other words, the police were supposed to stand down. However, he soon realized that something was off. His primary responsibility was to guard the terminal against illegal trafficking of “merchandise” – money, weapons and drugs. In 2006, Arellano was part of the security forces assigned to the country’s most important airport – Mexico City International Airport. “I would work 25 days in a row and then rest for five days,” he said. 79 and 40: the codes for drugs and moneyĪrellano, a former low-level Federal Police officer, testified first during the hearing. “The biggest bribe I saw was $5 million,” said Ávila. Meanwhile, Ávila is the third person to directly accuse the former official of receiving multimillion-dollar bribes. “The principles I believed in were being completely trampled,” he said. ![]() “I felt exhausted and discouraged, so I decided to retire,” said Arellano, who expressed his disgust with police corruption during the drug war. He was followed by Israel Ávila, a frontman for the Sinaloa Cartel, which flooded the country’s airports with cocaine. ![]() Arellano is the first former Mexican police officer to take the stand in the trial. On January 31, the prosecution called Raúl Arellano to testify in a Brooklyn court. ![]() Those were some of the main revelations during this week’s hearings in the trial of Genaro García Luna, the Secretary of Public Security in the Felipe Calderón administration (2006-2012). Drug traffickers who moved at will through Mexico’s main airports, federal police who helped unload drugs from planes, and coded messages to seal the pact of impunity. ![]()
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