it is clear that the Mexican cartels have on their payroll not only a large number of public officials but also politicians at the highest level, otherwise they would have already been defeated and people like El Mayo arrested
In US court Vicente Zambada implicated his father El Mayo, who he said had a budget of up to $1 million a month for bribing officials. A Mexican Army general attached to the Secretariat of National Defense was paid $50,000 a month by the cartel, Vicentillo said. He added that his father also regularly bribed a member of the military who occasionally worked as a bodyguard for former Mexican President Vicente Fox.
