Mexico

THE COLLUSION between white-collar crime and organized crime in Mexico has been rampant. For much of the 20th century, the Mexican government controlled organized crime. After the Mexican Revolution of the 1910s, the Mexican elite formed an official political party that eventually became known as the PRI. The PRI had a monopoly over political power and used this power to manipulate and exploit organized crime. Authorities sought out successful organized criminal groups, such as drug traffickers, and forced them to do the government's bidding. The government provided immunity from prosecution in exchange for payments used for government programs, political campaigns, and personal enrichment. Authorities expected criminals to cooperate. Failure to do so could result in prosecution or even being killed.

Due the fact that many Mexican government institutions such as the police or the attorney general's office, traditionally had little or no budget, they had to seek out their own operating funds. In order to do so, authorities would arrest crime figures, confiscate their goods, and then submit the goods to the Ministry of the Treasury in exchange for a payment. Furthermore, local officials often forced criminals to turn over valuable possessions such as homes and automobiles.

At other times, criminals would give suitcases filled with money and other gifts to their own attorneys, who would then turn them over to low-ranking government officials, who in turn submitted the payments to senior officials. Some of this money made it as high as the presidential palace, where it went into a slush fund. A good example of the government-organized crime connection is the 1997 arrest of General Jesús Gutiérrez Rebello, head of the National Institute to Combat Drugs (INCD). Gutiérrez was charged with protecting Amado Carrillo Fuentes, a major drug cartel leader, in exchange for gifts that included luxury apartments, vehicles, jewelry, and money. At the same time he provided protection for Carrillo Fuentes, Gutiérrez also cracked down on a rival drug cartel.

Exposing the connection between authorities and criminals could be dangerous. In 1984, journalist Manuel Buendía was killed after allegedly acquiring a video of a meeting between high-ranking government officials and drug dealers. In 1985, drug traffickers kidnapped, tortured and killed U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency agent Enrique Camarena Salazar. It was rumored that José Antonio Zorrilla, director of the security service Dirección Federal de Seguridad (DFS) protected the drug traffickers. Later, the brother-in-law of President Luís Echeverría was convicted by a federal court in Los Angeles, California, for his involvement. Eventually, the DFS was dissolved amid corruption charges, as Zorrilla was also convicted in the Buendía assassination.