Prosecutors in Mexico on Friday accused former chief of the country's anti-organized crime unit, Noe Ramirez Mandujano, to have taken at least $450,000 from drug cartels for providing information on police investigations.
Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora said at a news conference in Mexico City on Friday that Ramirez has been charged with tipping off drug smugglers about the police activity in Mexico's airports.
Ramirez was arrested on Thursday in connection with an ongoing anti corruption campaign, which also saw the arrests of four other senior officials and two federal agents.
On Sunday, the chief of Mexico's Interpol office, Ricardo Gutierrez Vargas, was placed under house arrest in connection with an investigation into leaks of information to drug cartels.
Ramirez took charge as head of the Special Organized Crime Investigation Division in 2006, but resigned in July as part of a shake-up by President Felipe Calderon.
He is the highest-ranking law official to be arrested in Operation Clean-up, which is aimed at identifying and punishing public servants with alleged links to the drug cartels.
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