Jailed Cartel Member: Bribes Work

A jailed member of one of Mexico’s largest drug cartels Tuesday testified that the organization moved tons of cocaine throughout the country and into the United States by liberally bribing Mexican officials at all levels.

“Everybody could be bribed,” said Juan Antonio Ortiz, a Gulf cartel member who cut his prison time from a potential 20 years to just under six by cooperating with U.S. authorities. “From what I know, everybody was being paid all the way to the top.”

Ortiz testified Tuesday on the second day of a civil proceeding in which the U.S. government is attempting to confiscate more than $9 million from Mario Ruiz Massieu, who served as deputy attorney general in Mexico in 1993 and 1994. Federal prosecutors were trying to convince a U.S. District Court jury here that the money amassed by Ruiz Massieu was paid to him by narcotics traffickers in return for protection. The defense maintains the money was honestly earned and taken out of Mexico as the country sank into political crisis.