TIJUANA The hard-nosed, former military leader widely credited with reining in drug traffickers has resigned the state job he held for just one month.
In a statement issued Friday night, retired Lt. Col. Julián Leyzaola said he was resigning as deputy director of the Public Safety agency for personal reasons.
"I urgently need to tend to matters separate from my work and that necessarily require my personal attention and that is why I'm submitting my resignation," Leyzaola wrote in his letter of resignation to Daniel de la Rosa, the state's Secretary of Public Safety.
Leyzaola thanked him for the support he gave him, the statement said.
For his part, De la Rosa also thanked him and wished him well in future endeavors.
Last Wednesday, Leyzaola attended the inauguration at Tijuana's Cultural Center of a new state center to process anonymous tips.
Speaking candidly after the event, he said that the drug cartels in Tijuana had fragmented to the point that they no longer held absolute sway in the city.
He credited crime-fighting efforts for turning the tide against organized criminals, particularly the fact that they could no longer freely bribe police officers.
Leyzaola, a retired lieutenant in the Mexican army, also served as secretary of Public Safety in Tijuana in 2009 and 2010 and as director of the municipal police force in 2008. In those positions he directly confronted drug traffickers from the rival Sinaloa and Arellano Félix cartels who were fighting for control the border region, a fight that left an official death toll of 2,325 and 390 people disappeared.
During that time, he carried out an unprecedented operation to rid the police department of corrupt officers. More than 600 officers suspected of working with traffickers resigned or were fired, including 84 who were arrested. At the same time, a total of 34 officers died during his tenure.
Last year, while still serving as Secretary of Public Safety in Tijuana, the state's Human Rights Prosecutor accused him of torture. That case remains open.
In an interview last year with SanDiegoRed.com, Leyzaola said that he saw such accusations as a tactic being used against him by drug traffickers he helped put away.
"These people want to shield themselves in human rights to avoid being prosecuted, and, in reality, perhaps to remove me from my job because I am a thorn in their side," he said.
"And that's one of the ways they could remove me from this place."
Omar.millan@sandiegored.com
