Former Coahuila governor arrested in Puerto Vallarta

A former governor of Coahuila was arrested today on corruption charges, some 13 months after the United States sought his extradition from Mexico.

Jorge Juan Torres López, wanted in the U.S. since November 2013 for money laundering and fraud, was arrested in Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco.

Torres, who served as interim governor of Coahuila between January and November 2011, transferred more than US $5 million to banks in Texas in 2008. The money was later moved to banks in Bermuda.

Former Coahuila treasurer Héctor Javier Villarreal Hernández was also charged. The latter has already pleaded guilty and is scheduled to be sentenced in San Antonio, Texas, on July 10.

Torres was placed on the U.S. most-wanted list by the Drug Enforcement Administration and was described as armed and dangerous.

Mexican authorities opened an investigation into his activities in October 2013, shortly before the U.S. issued an arrest warrant, to determine the source of $2.8 million in a Bermudas bank account in his name.

The investigation determined that the money had been a gift from Torres’ father.

Torres became interim governor of Coahuila after then-governor Humberto Moreira resigned to become national president of the Institutional Revolutionary Party.

Widely accused of corruption himself but never charged, Moreira lasted only nine months in his new job, resigning over a scandal in which it was revealed that he ran up the state’s debt from $200 million to $35 billion while in office.

He was arrested in Spain in 2016 on suspicion of money laundering and embezzlement but later released.

Source: Milenio (sp), Vanguardia (sp)

Have something to say? Paid Subscribers get all access to make & read comments.

Former governor of Guerrero arrested on Ayotzinapa-related charges

4
Ángel Aguirre was governor during the 2014 kidnapping and presumed murder of 43 students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers College that sparked international outrage. He is accused, among other things, of concealing evidence.
Cardinal Pietro Parolin presides at Mass at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City on Wednesday.

Vatican envoy prays for Mexico’s missing at CDMX Basilica Mass

0
Cardinal Pietro Parolin met with President Sheinbaum to discuss a papal visit invitation before presiding at a Mass calling for prayers for Mexico's missing persons and "searching mothers."
US officials with a poster displaying the CJNG leaders and associated rewards for their capture

Reward for CJNG’s new leader jumps to $25 million after ‘El Mencho’s’ death

0
Washington also raised rewards for six other CJNG leaders and revoked visas for 65 relatives and associates tied to sanctioned traffickers.
BETA Version - Powered by Perplexity