Mexican police commander guided drug shipments

AP/Houston Chronicle:

A former Mexican police commander accused of playing an active role in guiding drug shipments served as a tax collector for the Gulf cartel, a witness testified Thursday in a federal drug smuggling case.

Carlos "El Puma" Landin Martinez collected pisos, or tolls, from smaller drug gangs crossing through the cartel's turf in Reynosa, across the border from McAllen, said Daniel Zamorano Marchant, a Chilean restaurant manager who once smuggled marijuana and methamphetamine for the cartel.

Anyone wanting to run drugs or transport illegal immigrants between the Mexican cities of Diaz Ordaz, south of Sullivan City, and Rio Bravo, had to pay tolls to Landin, Zamorano said.

Zamorano and two other men told jurors that they had each either met, organized deals with or had been kidnapped by a man known as "El Puma," The (McAllen) Monitor reported.

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Landin is accused of running a drug smuggling operation for the Gulf drug cartel while also working as the state police commander in Tamaulipas, Mexico.

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Zamorano said the cartel maintains control of smuggling routes in Tamaulipas with a strong hand and the support of Mexican police.

"If you want to participate in illegal activity you need to talk to the cartel leader of that area," he said. "Otherwise you will be kidnapped and killed."

Landin was arrested in July when a Drug Enforcement Administration agent spotted him buying a watermelon at a supermarket in McAllen.

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Tamaulipas runs along the Texas border from Brownsville at the very tip of Texas up to Reynosa across from McAllen. The drug thugs have survived and thrived through their relationship with corrupt Mexican police officials. They have become so strong that police are given the choice to join in their efforts or be killed. There are not many brave enough to fight them and if this case is proven it appears that some have joined the drug insurgents with enthusiasm.