“Sol Prendido” for Borderland Beat
The National Police have arrested in Spain Jonathan Alexis Weinberg, an alleged member of the Genaro García Luna embezzlement network in Mexico, which would have operated over 20 years, defrauding the State of 745 million dollars, through false contracts or inflated. The Attorney General’s Office of the Republic (FGR) has reported the arrest, which is taking place, he said, for the purposes of extradition.
“Once the FGR had obtained the international red card from Interpol, on December 31, the arrest of this individual was obtained, who had fled and will now be subjected to the legal extradition procedure,” he stated. the agency in a statement released this Monday. “This action is fundamental in the cases that are being pursued against Genaro G. As soon as the corresponding judicial procedure begins, the FGR will report on the actions that the Law allows to be disclosed,” he added.
Jonathan Weinberg is the son of Samuel Weinberg, head of a business family of Polish descent, who arrived in Mexico in the 1930s. The Weinbergs would have worked for years with García Luna, Secretary of Public Security in the Government of Felipe Calderón (2006-2012). García Luna would have met the Weinbergs in the 1990s, when the former was still an agent of the State intelligence services, the missing CISEN.
According to journalist Peniley Ramírez in Los Millonarios de la Guerra, it was one of García Luna’s tutors, the sailor Wilfrido Robledo, now deceased, who introduced him to the Weinbergs. Already then, Samuel Weinberg represented companies in Mexico that sold virtual spy systems, such as the Octopus, among other products in the security industry. As police chief, García Luna would award contracts to companies linked to the family.
In February, the Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF) of the Ministry of Finance presented at a press conference the evidence collected against García Luna himself, the Weinbergs and other characters allegedly involved in the plot. “One of the characteristics of this plot is that they took the money to the United States through Caribbean countries, mainly Barbados, heading to Miami in Florida,” Pablo Gómez, head of the UIF, said then. “They used the financial system to extract the resources they received in the contracts that García Luna promoted with public agencies in Mexico,” the official added.
García Luna is in prison in the United States. In February, the court found him guilty of drug trafficking. The authorities of that country indicated that the former official had collaborated for years with the Sinaloa cartel to traffic drugs. The judge is scheduled to report the terms of his sentence in March. At the same time, the Mexican justice system is pursuing several proceedings against him for different crimes.
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