The owner of a Coahuila coal mine where 10 miners died last year has been arrested in Nuevo León on an illegal mining charge, the Federal Attorney General’s Office announced Thursday.
The miners became trapped in the El Pinabete mine in the municipality of Sabinas last August, when excavation work caused a tunnel wall to collapse. Efforts to rescue the miners failed, and their bodies remain underground almost 10 months after the accident occurred.
The FGR said in a statement that Luis Rafael García Luna Acuña, the majority owner of the mine, had been ordered to stand trial on a charge of “unlawful exploitation of an asset that belongs to the nation.”
It said that the charge was related to the events that led to the miners becoming trapped on Aug. 3, 2022.
The FGR said that on May 18 it applied for and obtained a search warrant for a property in San Pedro Garza García, Nuevo León, to complement a warrant issued for the arrest of García. The mine owner was subsequently arrested at the property.
The FGR said that a Coahuila-based federal judge who ordered García to stand trial set a period of one month and 15 days for prosecutors and defense lawyers to prepare their cases.
The suspect will remain in preventive detention in a Coahuila prison as he awaits trial.
Another owner of the El Pinabete mine, Cristian Eloir Solís Arriaga, was arrested on an illegal mining charge last September and remains in preventive detention.
With reports from El Universal and Reforma
