Top Mexican Official Said to Tip Drug Cartel About Probe

A 42-page criminal complaint unsealed in Chicago on Wednesday alleged that Reyes had leaked crucial information to several targets of the undercover probe, including the identity of an informant who later had to be evacuated from Mexico for his own safety.
The complaint alleged that during a personal meeting with cartel leader Arturo Beltran-Leyva in 2009, Reyes revealed the identity of another DEA informant who had been “instrumental” in securing an indictment against the cartel’s bosses.
On Beltran-Leyva’s orders, cartel assassins later kidnapped, tortured and killed the informant, according to the complaint.  Beltran-Leyva was killed in a firefight with Mexican authorities in 2009 which means Reyes had been working as a mole for the cartels for at least 8 years.
Several informants, including other corrupt Mexican police officials, told authorities that Reyes was paid at least $3 million for his betrayal, the complaint alleged.
Reyes first drew attention last year during an investigation involving Chicago and San Diego authorities of a Beltran-Leyva-connected drug trafficking network that was allegedly importing multiple tons of narcotics from Colombia to Mexico for distribution in the U.S., according to the charges.
According to the complaint, a DEA agent in September asked Reyes to assist in surveillance of several targets in Mexico City. The agent sent Reyes a surveillance photo that had been taken in Cancun in April to help him identify the players and gave him the address of an apartment where they were believed to be living and the name of a restaurant where they often met, the charges alleged.
The next day, that same photograph was sent by someone using the screen name “Ayala” to one of the drug traffickers warning he was being targeted by the DEA, according to the complaint.
“Regarding yesterday’s matter. Guess what? It’s you,” Ayala — who authorities later learned to be Reyes — wrote to the trafficker, according to the complaint.
Ayala also warned the trafficker to discontinue any use of cellphones and move locations if possible.
“I recommend you wait a bit, get rid of all (communication devices), and if you can move from where you are, due to the location of the phones you have now. … Take care and we’ll be in touch. No worries.”
In October, authorities intercepted text messages between Dominguez, the kingpin, and an associate discussing how the cartel had leverage over Reyes because his code name — La Reina — had already surfaced in investigative files as that of a corrupt law enforcement officer.
“We can screw ivan,” the unidentified associate said, according to the complaint.
In the texts, the two surmised the case against them was weak because it relied on the cooperation of one informant whom they repeatedly referred to as “the dirt bag.” They also discussed various methods of getting the informant to “retract” the information he had given to the government, according to the complaint.
“If the dirt bag retracts everything, that’s the only way we can make this work,” Dominguez texted Oct. 26, according to the complaint. “Ivan should be there waiting for the process, that way he can come with the gueros (U.S. law enforcement) to do the work.”
According to the complaint, Reyes met in person with Dominguez in Mexico City in November and discussed the leaked surveillance photograph.
Dominguez and one of the associates who dealt with Reyes have since been charged with narcotics offenses in federal court in San Diego, while a third cartel member faces similar charges in Chicago, according to the complaint. Both of those cases remain under seal, however.