Mexican judge acquits former drug czar accused of leaking information to powerful drug cartel

MEXICO CITY – A Mexican judge has acquitted a former drug czar who was charged with organized crime after he allegedly accepted $450,000 to leak details of police operations against members of the Pacific cartel, an alliance once headed by the Sinaloa drug cartel.

Noe Ramirez was Mexico's top anti-drug prosecutor and the highest-ranking law enforcement official detained in 2008 as part of then President Felipe Calderon's sweeping effort to weed out corrupt officials with ties to organized crime.

Mexico's Federal Judiciary Council said in a statement that a federal judge acquitted Ramirez on Monday after determining the main witness in the case lied and prosecutors might have fabricated evidence.

Ramirez was one of five top officials and two federal agents detained in 2008 as part of Calderon's "Operation Clean House."