Warrant arrest issued for 19 former federal police officials in Mexico

(KYMA, KECY)-A Mexican judge issues a warrant arrest on Tuesday for 19 former federal police officials for alleged organized crime and money laundering.

NBC News reports former chief of police for the capital Jesús Orta and 18 others are suspected of embezzling millions of dollars during their time in the federal police under the 2012-2018 presidency of Enrique Peña Nieto.

Mexico's President Andrés Manuel López Obrador says arrest orders were the result of an investigation into the accounts of the previous Interior Ministry, which then controlled the federal police.

Among the 18 others wanted is Frida Martinez, another former general secretary of federal police described in Mexican media as a protegé of Miguel Angel Osorio Chong, who was interior minister for most of Peña Nieto’s administration.

Sources say Orta also held important posts in the city government under current Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard when he was mayor of Mexico City from 2006-2012, following Lopez Obrador.