Humberto Garcia Abrego, brother of convicted drug lord Juan Garcia Abrego and a money-laundering suspect, was allowed to escape custody before criminal charges could be filed against him, officials announced Friday.
The announcement from the Attorney General's Office came just hours after the U.S. government announced it would grant Mexico full certification of its anti-drug efforts.Two employees of Mexico's National Institute for the Combat of Drugs, an anti-drug agency similar to the United States' Drug Enforcement Agency, have been placed under house arrest and are being investigated after allowing Garcia Abrego to leave a questioning session Thursday.
"Inexplicably, the official in charge of the investigation informed a superior that Humber-to Garcia Abrego had left the Institution," the Attorney General's Office said in a statement.
The officials "disobeyed precise orders from superiors" to question Garcia Abrego and complete files needed to bring new criminal charges against him, the statement said.