By KRWG News
Mexico City – A Mexican border state's governor says he'll give state police officers a 20 percent pay raise in the hope of deterring them from being lured into helping drug cartels.
Nuevo Leon state Gov. Rodrigo Medina said the increase would be given only to officers who pass "confidence control checks" to prove they have no links to drug gangs.
The low pay of Mexican police is often blamed for the ease by which cartels recruit officers. Medina said state troopers in Nuevo Leon, across the U.S. border from Texas, now earn the equivalent of $687 a month. Two-thirds of local police officers are paid $315 a month or less, according to the federal Public Safety Department. Mexico's minimum wage is about $145 a month.
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.