corruption and prohibition: the War on Drugs in Mexico

One of the almost-inevitable "fruits" of Prohibition is corruption-- giving in to the incentives created by the government's efforts to eliminate "mutually beneficial trade".

The WSJ reports on a recent example of this on this weekend's front page-- in a story by David Luhnow and Jose de Cordoba...

Mexico's former anti-drug czar has been detained in a widening corruption scandal that suggests a large percentage of top agents assigned to fight the drug trade here have instead been cooperating with cocaine cartels.

Noé Ramírez, who headed Mexico's elite anti-drug agency until August, accepted a bribe of $450,000 to leak information to a drug gang, Mexico's Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora alleged on Friday. Mr. Ramírez, who since August has been Mexico's acting envoy to the United Nations office for drug control in Vienna, was detained on Thursday and charged with participating in organized crime. It wasn't possible to reach him for comment....

He is the highest-profile target of a widening corruption probe, called Operation Cleanup, that has implicated more than 35 high law-enforcement officials and raised serious doubts about Mexico's ability to wage the drug war....

John Walters, the director of the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy, praised the detention as evidence Mexico is willing to prosecute corruption at all levels. "This is a positive action that the world needs to support, and the U.S. government stands by them in their efforts," he said.

Nice spin, John!

The mounting corruption scandal is Mexico's worst in a decade. In 1998, anti-drug czar Jesús Gutiérrez Rebollo was convicted of cooperating with a drug gang. The case, the basis of the Hollywood movie "Traffic," was a humiliation for Mexico and for Washington, which had praised Gen. Gutiérrez and had worked closely with his agency in sharing secret information....

President Felipe Calderón has been struggling against a rising tide of blood stemming from drug-cartel turf wars. More than 4,000 have been killed this year in the mayhem, which includes decapitations, torture and brazen daylight attacks on police. Mr. Calderón has sent 36,000 army troops about the country in an effort to keep the peace....

Another wonderful fruit of the War...

The web of corruption even touched the U.S. Embassy. In September 2007, Mr. Cueto, the Rivero aide who is now a fugitive, introduced 19 to an old friend and former federal police agent who had just started working at the U.S. embassy and had access to sensitive information from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, according to several witnesses' testimony. The embassy employee, code-named Felipe, who is now a protected witness, testified they agreed he would give information in return for $30,000 a month....