Former police chief once accused of torturing his officers returns to police in Tijuana

Juarez Police Chief Julian Leyzaola (center) walks past the body of a senior municipal police officer after he was shot by unknown assailants in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2012. (AP Photo/Raymundo Ruiz)

SAN DIEGO (Border Report) — Former Tijuana police chief Julián Leyzaola Pérez, who was accused of torturing police officers and survived eight assassination attempts, is back.

Tijuana’s incoming mayor, Ismael Burgueño Ruiz, announced this week that he would appoint Leyzaola Pérez as the city’s next public security director.

Leyzaola Pérez is a controversial figure. He is a former military officer known for his work in the fight against drug cartels and police corruption.

In 2008, he was appointed police chief of Tijuana and, with the help of the military, attempted to eliminate corruption within the police department.

During his tenure as head of the Tijuana Police Department, he told reporters that he once turned down an offer from drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera to pay him $80,000 a week to help him control the drug trade in Tijuana.

Four years later, he took a similar post in Juarez, another Mexican border city embroiled in drug violence.

Immediately after taking office, he received death threats from cartels who promised to kill a police officer every day until he resigned.

Shortly afterwards, he was shot once in the neck and twice in the back in front of a currency exchange office. The injuries left him paralyzed from the waist down.

After his recovery, Leyzaola Pérez was charged with personally torturing suspected drug dealers and his own police officers, who he believed were working for the cartels, but the charges were eventually dropped.

Six years ago, he ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Tijuana.

In recent years he had worked as a security consultant in Baja California.

The attorney general of Baja California told reporters on Wednesday that no charges were pending against Leyzaola Pérez.

“Nothing that would legally prevent him from taking the job,” she said.

He is expected to officially take office in October when the new mayoral administration is sworn in.

TuviTv made a documentary about Leyzaola Pérez called “Mexico’s Bravest Man” and describes how he survived eight attempts on his life.