Political Rivals Fabricated Criminal Case Against Former Mexican Governor, Say Attorneys

Americo and AMLO
Tamaulipas Government
Ildefonso Ortiz and Brandon Darby

A group of attorneys representing a former Mexican border state governor said various government figures from Mexico’s ruling party colluded to “fabricate a false criminal case” in a failed attempt to arrest and remove the politician who belongs to a rival party. The attorneys announced they filed a criminal complaint with Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office.

The individuals in the alleged collusion include the current Tamaulipas Governor Americo Villarreal, Mexico’s former head of the Financial Intelligence Unit Santiago Nieto, Federal Judge Ivan Aaron Zeferin Hernandez, and others as part of an alleged political witch-hunt.

During a news conference on Monday, attorney Javier Coello and other attorneys from his firm announced the move and presented video and photographic evidence to back up their claims. The attorneys demanded their day in court.

“The former head of the Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF) Santiago Nieto, in collusion with then-Senator Americo Villarreal (current Tamaulipas governor) created a scheme in which they took advantage of the institutions they represented to use the tools of those positions to impute false actions to (Francisco) Cabeza de Vaca and then try to remove him from office (former governor of Tamaulipas),” Coello said.

According to the attorneys, Nieto focused on a 2014 apartment loan and tried to make it seem like it was money laundering from the Sinaloa Cartel. An investigation conducted by his own UIF proved that narrative was false.

Coello also claimed that Nieto testified in a congressional hearing that Cabeza de Vaca had embezzled funds from construction projects that were never built. However, the attorney revealed that the FGR determined that the projects had been built to specs. The lawyers also claimed that some of the allegations against Cabeza de Vaca came from blog posts and social media pages that were then presented as evidence.

Based on those allegations, congressional members voted to remove the constitutional immunity from Cabeza de Vaca for one of three allegations — the one dealing with a tax issue — and not the allegations of money laundering or engaging in a criminal organization. However, Federal Judge Ivan Aaron Zeferin issued an arrest warrant for the former governor on the two charges that were not authorized by congressional members, making the warrant illegal, the attorney stated.

According to Coello, Santiago Nieto received instructions from murdered fuel theft kingpin Sergio Carmona, Morena Party President Mario Delgado, Americo Villarreal, and others to claim false criminal acts by the former governor. The attorney showed a screenshot of a WhatsApp message from Nieto which he claims to have acted out under orders from government officials.

As Breitbart Texas has reported, the deceased fuel-theft kingpin Carmona has been accused of funneling cartel money into Morena political campaigns.

Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com. 

Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com.     

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