10/29/14 (written by cmolzahn) — Another Michoacán mayor has been arrested and indicted for suspected ties to organized crime groups in that troubled state as fallout from the federal government’s intervention there continues. José Luis Madrigal Figueroa, former mayor of Numarán, Michoacán, joins five other former Michoacán mayors currently under indictment for alleged ties to organized crime.
Madrigal, member of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (Partido de la Revolución Democrática, PRD), was arrested on October 24 and appeared before the state Attorney General’s Office (Procuraduría de Justicia de Michoacán). In addition to Madrigal, Michoacán’s Office of the Public Prosecutor (Ministerio Público) announced that four additional municipal employees were also detained, including Madrigal’s brother, Edwin Madrigal. The five entered the prison in nearby Zamora on October 25, and their indictments were handed down two days later, on charges of “illicit acts against the public security system and having ties with organized crime.”
Michoacán Attorney General José Martín Godoy Castro alleges that Madrigal took his public security director, Jaime Daniel Solís Villegas, to a meeting with a leader of the Knights Templar criminal organization (Caballeros Templarios, KTO) who requested that Solís collaborate with his organization and agree not to interfere with its operations in the area, as well as to advise him of state and federal law enforcement activity. Edwin Madrigal, then director of Social Development (Desarrollo Social), is also suspected to have been present at the meeting. According to Attorney General Godoy, Solís received $15,000 pesos ($1,115 USD), $10,000 of which he shared amongst two supervisors beneath him. Godoy added that there is evidence that Madrigal gave his approval for the proposal.
Other former Michoacán mayors facing charges of organized crime involvement are Uriel Chávez (Apatzingán), Jesús Cruz Valencia (Aguililla), Dalia Santana Pineda (Huetamo), Salma Karru, (Pátzcuaro), all from the Institutional Revolutionary Party (Partido Revolucionario Institucional, PRI); and Arqímides Oseguera from the PRD.
Sources:
“Dan formal prisión a alcalde de Numarán, Michoacán.” Milenio. October 27, 2014.
