Mexico enlists Interpol to help catch lawmaker allegedly linked to drug cartel

The Washington Post, 12/17/2010

Mexico’s attorney general said Thursday that he was calling on Interpol to help authorities capture a lawmaker suspected of having ties to a drug cartel.

Mexico’s top prosecutor, Arturo Chavez Chavez, vowed to arrest Julio Cesar Godoy Toscano, a federal deputy whose immunity from prosecution was stripped by Congress this week.

Traditionally, suspect Mexican politicians are pursued after they leave office – if at all. But Godoy became an embarrassment and liability to the political class, especially after investigators released a recorded phone call of him allegedly speaking with a high-ranking member of the drug trafficking cartel known as La Familia.

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Damning Tapes

Julio Cesar Godoy

Gancho Blog, 10/14/2010

The PGR has released a recording of Julio César Godoy, the fugitive deputy and half-brother of Michoacán Governor Leonel Godoy, speaking with a great deal of familiarity and friendliness with Servando La Tuta Gómez, a big shot in La Familia. Creepily, Godoy calls him tío, while Gómez refers to the politician as mijo. Of course, while damning, that alone isn’t a crime, but Godoy also asks Gómez to deal with a reporter “who is f***ing with us a lot”. La Tuta obliges, and also encourages Godoy to be careful, because “things are hot”. I’m looking forward to Godoy’s justification.

Evidence like this, and not necessarily taped conversations but something tangible and ready for public viewing, was conspicuously absent in the michoacanazo.

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Fugitive politician is tied to gang targeting police

Ken Ellingwood , Los Angeles Times, 7/16/2009

Last week, Julio Cesar Godoy was a congressman-elect. This week, he is a fugitive.

Mexican authorities say Godoy, a half-brother of Michoacan state Gov. Leonel Godoy, helped provide protection for La Familia, the drug-trafficking gang that has waged war on federal police across the state in recent days, killing at least 16 officers.

Officials have an arrest warrant but apparently can’t find the younger Godoy, an attorney who was elected to Congress on July 5 as a candidate of the left-leaning Democratic Revolution Party, or PRD.

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