Two Mexican police officers allegedly tied to a drug trafficking ring are still at large after a recent shooting at the Mexico City Airport. Authorities claim that these officers began firing shots at other officers after they attempted to arrest the officers for helping with the smuggling of drugs.

The two officers still at large are Daniel Cruz Garcia and Zeferino Morales Franco. They explained to a magazine recently—before their attempted arrest—that they were being targeted because they had threatened to expose other police officers in their ranks who had actually been involved in drug smuggling.

One arrest has been made so far: Bogard Felipe Lugo de Leon. This police officer was arrested in connection to the shooting, and authorities are saying that he was involved as the ringleader of the trafficking ring. Lugo de Leon was the supervisor of the two federal officers that supposedly opened up fire on their fellow officers. Airport video footage shows him leaving the airport after the shooting took place supposedly with the other two gunmen, but again. An anonymous tip led to the arrest of Lugo de Leon.

Three officers were killed in the shooting. Luis Cardenas Palomino—the Federal Police regional security chief—said that the attempted arrest of these officers was not something that was planned, but rather an incident where one of the accused officers was actually caught trafficking drugs throughout the airport terminal’s food court. The shootout occurred on June 25th, 2012. The officers were allegedly smuggling cocaine.

Two officers were pronounced dead at the scene f the shooting while the third died later on in the hospital. This is considered to be an embarrassment to Mexico’s President Felipe Calderon. He has placed the federal police units at the heart of an attempt to rid the country of its many drug cartels. For the people who are supposed to be helping him with this mission to actually be on the frontlines perpetrating the smuggling of drugs is obviously not a good thing for Calderon’s initiative or his reputation.

Over the five and a half years of his drug cartel stopping initiative, Over 55,000 people have been killed in drug related violence. This is a huge number regardless of what you look at and is a prime example of just how big the drug cartel problem is within Mexico. If the government wants to help clear up the rampant smuggling and trafficking of drugs within Mexico, more vigilance will likely be necessary. 55,000 dead bodies is a lot and demonstrates just how widespread the problem is. When looked at in this light, the fact that federal officers have been involved in the smuggling should not be that much of a surprise. Hopefully, this drug bust will end more peacefully than it started and just will ultimately be served to those who are responsible for the smuggling.

There is currently a five million peso reward for the capture of Garcia and Franco. This comes out to over $300,000 in U.S. currency.

This article was written by Bradley Morton, he is a law student interested in the legal discovery process and hoping to one day be an attorney. He believes that technology has the power to revolutionize legal proceedings, through things like electronic discovery Document Review.

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