Fernando Maya Accusations Mexico Police

A Mexican gardener detained with more than a dozen members of an alleged drug trafficking ring testified that police threatened to feed him to lions and tigers. A gardener detained along with more than a dozen members of an alleged drug trafficking ring testified that police threatened him to feed him to lions and tigers during a raid at a Mexico City mansion, a newspaper reported Friday.

The Reforma newspaper reported that at a court hearing on Tuesday the gardener, Fernando Maya, testified that police beat him, gave him electric shocks and threatened to rape his wife if he did not reveal the whereabouts of the owner of the house, who remains at large. He claimed that police dragged him to cages with lions and tigers and threatened to throw him inside.

"Fernando Maya Says Police defenseless Him with Lion and Tigers"

Mexico’s former acting federal police chief, Gerardo Garay, is under research for supposedly shoplifting money from the house during the raid. Garay is among several federal officers arrested for supposedlygroup effort with drug cartels in a bribery investigation known as “Operation Clean House.”

It had access to a court hearing Tuesday in which the gardener, Fernando Maya, testified that police beat him, gave him electric shocks and threatened to rape his wife if he did not reveal the whereabouts of the owner of the house, who remains at large. “They kept saying, where is he? And that they were going to throw me to the lions, they were going to throw me to the tigers, which had not eaten,” the newspaper quoted Maya as saying. “I told them they should just kill me.” The federal Public Safety Department that conducted the raid said its investigation was still continuing and it declined to comment on Reforma’s report, which was unusual because most court hearings in Mexico are closed to the public. It was unclear if Maya has been charged with any crime. Fernando Maya was released on bail Wednesday.