Ex-Mexican officer-turned-cartel mole sentenced in Chicago
Source: Associated Press
Michael Tarm, Ap Legal Affairs Writer
Updated 2:57 pm CST, Saturday, November 10, 2018
CHICAGO (AP) — A federal judge in Chicago handed a more than three-year prison sentence Thursday to a former Mexican intelligence-unit commander on charges he divulged American investigative secrets to cartel bosses in Mexico — a betrayal one DEA agent told the court collapsed drug-trafficking investigations and cost lives.
Ivan Reyes Arzate, 46, was a main point of contact for intelligence sharing between U.S. agencies and Mexican Federal Police. He drew on access to U.S. intelligence to help unmask a cartel informant, who was later tortured and killed, according to filings by prosecutors.
Arzate turned himself over to American officials in 2017 and changed his plea in May from not guilty to no contest to obstruction and conspiracy to obstruct justice.
Sergio "El Grande" Villarreal Barragan, a longtime confidant to the head of the Beltran Leyva cartel, testified at Thursday's hearing. He described to U.S.
District Judge Harry Leinenweber how Mexican syndicates rely heavily on corrupt police, like Arzate, to expand their illegal operations and vanquish rivals.
Read more: https://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Ex-Mexican-officer-faces-sentencing-for-leak-to-13374805.php
Ivan Reyes Arzate