Enrique Alfaro, under US investigation for alleged links to drug trafficking

By: Anabel Hernández

The United States Government Department of Justice (DOJ) Enrique Alfaro Ramírez current candidate of the governor of Jalisco party Movimiento Ciudadano, for its alleged links with drug trafficking, especially with the Jalisco Cartel Nueva Generación (CJNG). This is revealed by an internal report of the Department of Justice prepared in early 2018 that was accessed.

The information was corroborated by a US government official. He said that he has started a process to cancel the visa of Alfaro Ramírez, who is leading the elections to win the elections on 1 July.

"There is information gathered that the former mayor of Tlajomulco and currently mayor of Guadalajara He has close links with drug trafficking, receives money from them in exchange of security and lets them work ", says the DOJ document

According to the report, during the period when Alfaro Ramírez was president Tlajomulco (2009-2011) multiplied the laboratories where glass is produced. Alfaro Ramírez was elected mayor of Guadalajara, but applied for a temporary permit to run for the office of governor of the state.

There is also a precedent in Mexico for investigations of Alfaro Ramírez and its alleged links with drug trafficking.] Report of the Secretary of the Navy prepared in 2014, which had previously been consulted for a journalistic investigation, indicates that an investigation was initiated against Alfaro and fo Agents who collaborated during their administrations for alleged links with a financial network headed by María Guadalupe Gastélum Payán, the second wife of the former drug trafficker Juan José Esparragoza Moreno aka "El Azul" related to Cartel de Sinaloa, and his children Brenda Guadalupe, Cristian Ivan, Juan Ignacio and Nadia Patricia Esparragoza Gastelum

"One of the lines of research that is followed In the follow-up of this financial network of El Azul in l 39; State of Jalisco, several former employees of the municipality of Tlajomulco, in the last three administrations, would have facilitated the installation and operation of these companies in return for millionaire gratuities. note the Navy's report.

The reports agree that Alfaro Ramírez and a group of close associates were alleged to have received money from the Cartel de Sinaloa and the Cartel of the New Generation of Jalisco . Two groups currently fighting for control of the state of Jalisco, a key entity for the presence of synthetic drug laboratories and a strategic step for the transfer of drugs.

Miguel Zamora Bueno and Hugo Luna Vázquez are among the collaborators reported by the Navy report. The first was general director of works during the governments of Alfaro Ramírez in Tlajomulco and then went to work in the same position in Zapopan from 2015 to date.

Meanwhile, Luna Vázquez was his coordinator of strategic projects in Tlajomulco and later chief of staff of the Mayor's office in Guadalajara. The latter is considered one of the closest men to the MC candidate.

The DOJ report also mentions the former Attorney General of Jalisco, Luis Carlos Nájera, who was a victim of the crime. an attack last May; and Enrique Ibarra Pedroza, who has been appointed acting mayor of Guadalajara while Alfaro Ramírez is competing for the governorship.

RED CRIMINAL

According to information gathered in Guadalajara from direct witnesses, for nearly 18 years in the metropolitan area of ​​Jalisco (Tlajomulco, Zapopan and Guadalajara), a political group headed by Alfaro Ramírez was set up . Presidency of these town halls.

This would have allowed them to create a network of real estate companies, to charge fees for the operation of slot machines, illegal casinos, prostitution and the sale of drugs , thus protecting the illegal activities of the two cartels

Since 2001 Alfaro Ramírez, affiliated to the PRI, served as secretary of the municipal council of Tlajomulco, when Guillermo Sánchez Magaña was municipal president of the same party. In 2003 he fought for the mayor of Tlajomulco, but lost to Andrés Zermeño Barba, however he remained as councilor and president of the urban development of the municipality.

In 2007 he was a member of the PRI in the LVIII legislature of Jalisco. From 2009 to 2011, he was mayor of Tlajomulco by the PRD-PT. When his term ended, Ismael del Toro Castro was elected as his successor, part of the same political group.

Alfaro Ramírez was a candidate of the Movimiento Ciudadano for the Jalisco government in 2012 and lost the election to Aristóteles Sandoval, PRI. In 2015 he was elected Municipal President of Guadalajara, with Movimiento Ciudadano.

According to the DOJ " Alfaro manages to be mayor of Guadalajara using narco money to support his political campaign ." He applied for a license from the office to run again for the governorship.

People who know the direct circle of Alfaro Ramírez asserted that Luna Vázquez is one of the closest and most responsible of "all her real belongings". He had the relationship with real estate developers in Tlajomulco

Enrique Ibarra Pedroza, Rector of Siglo University XXI, linked to the UDG, is also a member of this political group . According to the US government " has close ties with CJNG because it has a political family related to the criminal group ." His son Pablo Ibarra Gallo married Paola Ibarrola, daughter of Fernando Alfredo Ibarrola, alias "El Pantera", accused of the murder of the Minister of Tourism of Jalisco, Jesús Gallegos Álvarez, in 2013.

Another alleged member of this network is Mario Valerio Perez Gollaz, who was adviser for MC in Guadalajara in the administration of Alfaro Ramírez and is now the head of the Metropolitan Security Agency. He was also a leader of this party in the state.

Journalist Anabel Hernández sought Alfaro's campaign team and sent him a questionnaire with nine questions. The answer he received from Carlos Delgado Padilla, communication and strategy coordinator of the Alfaro campaign, was: "We have no response to these slanders and defamations." I appreciate your attentions. "

THE CONEXIÓ N

According to the report of the Navy, Jorge Enrique Esquerra Esquer and Julio César Estrada Gutiérrez, identified as" prestanombres and partners "of the children of" El Azul ", would have benefited in the administration of Alfaro Ramírez in Tlajomulco to facilitate the construction of works for money .

Since December 2012, Esquerra Esquer and Estrada Gutiérrez have been designated by the United States Treasury Department as money launderers of the Esparragoza Moreno family

Esquerra Esquer and Estrada Gutiérrez operate two companies: Grupo Impergoza and Grupo. Cinjab. The first, based in Tlajomulco, operates the luxury residential division of Provence, the shopping center Provenza Center and the industrial park of La Tijera, all built in Tlajomulco.

According to information collected, Alfaro and his group allowed a fierce and chaotic real estate development in Tlajomulco in exchange for kickbacks from construction companies. In this context, they would have accommodated the development of the financial network linked to the Sinaloa Cartel.

"It should be emphasized that in 2010 the Tlajomulco de Zúñiga Town Hall, then chaired by Enrique Alfaro Ramírez, granted the license of habitability." In the same area of ​​investigation is investigated whether this criminal group (the El Azul financial network) contributed economic and material resources to the campaign of Enrique Alfaro ", explains the report of the Navy Ramirez for the Gubernatura of Jalisco in the elections of 2012, declared the document.

According to this report, Zamora Bueno has established contacts with relatives of "El Azul" through Esquerra Esfuerzo and Estrada Gutiérrez. And this could be linked to the "remarkable growth of one's personal patrimony" such as the homes and land in the housing estates in Zapopan, it says.

According to the public registers of the municipality of Tlajomulco, in December 2010, the municipality granted a commercial license and the provision of services to Grupo Impergoza, but unlike the regulation itself was not inscribed in the register, the commercial line or the license number. Yet he has the "v" of the current.

"EL PISTOLAS"

In the recent report of the DOJ, it is said that during "his official presentation" Alfaro Ramírez had among his guests Sergio Kurt Schmidt, nicknamed "El Pistolas" accused by the Government of Mexico of being the financial operator of the cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación

The first league of Sergio Kurt Schmidt dates back to 1981, when he participated in the assault of # 39, a van in Lagos. Moreno, with a booty of 93 million pesos. Made by the one who has been imprisoned.

According to witnesses, the relationship between the two was very close and the visits of "El Pistolas" to Alfaro Ramírez in Tlajomulco and Guadalajara were constant.

"(Alfaro Ramírez) He already had a solid relationship with" El Pistolas "which involved his son Kurt Schmidt Díaz in the municipal payroll." He points to the US government's document.

The report of the Ministry of Justice indicates that the son of "El pistolas" was under the command of Luna Vázquez

. But Schmidt also had close relations with other members of the political circle like Abel Salgado. He liked to show his Salgado counselor "plateau" when he was a federal deputy in the LXII legislature, according to information compiled by the journalist.

When Del Toro was mayor of Tlajomulco, "El Pistolas" rented to the municipality the building where the municipal police headquarters were located. The contract was in the name of his wife

Schmidt was arrested by PGR and the Federal Police in August 2016, in Zapopan, for alleged links to the CJNG. A year later, he was released because in the search report, the federal prosecutor did not collect the signatures of the witnesses to the operation.

During his arrest, the Guadalajara City Council explained that his son had suddenly left office.

THE EXECUTION AND THE MESSAGE

Enrique Alfaro Ramírez is the son of the former rector of the University of Guadalajara (UDG) Enrique Alfaro Anguiano, who has the Notary 83 of Guadalajara . The family has economic, real estate and pharmaceutical resources.

On June 1, Francisco Cárdenas García, father-in-law of his brother David Alfaro Ramírez who is the notary 26 of Guadalajara, was murdered.

He ate alone in a restaurant at Mercado del Mar Higuerillas in Guadalajara when two men arrived and executed him at close range in broad daylight before escaping into a Jeep. According to a photo that was obtained at the crime scene, he was shot in the neck.

Cárdenas García was head of the Departmental Unit of the Directorate of Inspection and Supervision of the Municipality of Guadalajara. He took office on 1 October 2015, the same day that Enrique Alfaro assumed the municipal presidency

The candidate lamented the homicide, attributing the fact to widespread violence in Jalisco.

"Today, the violence has reached my family, a few hours ago the father of my brother's wife was murdered.It hurts a lot in Jalisco.My condolences and solidarity with the family of Angelica . "

The Secretary General of the Government of Jalisco, Roberto López Lara, declared on June 4 that the reason for the robbery was excluded in this homicide:" I completely reject the theft. cameras nearby and that's part of it, that's why I tell you that it was a direct question, a direct assault against that person (…) we are just valuing its history, its way of life, everything and the contribution that he gives us also they were there. "

Days after the execution, on June 9, three covers appeared in Guadalajara, referring to Enrique Alfaro:" Alfaro what is happened to the person responsible for collecting the slot machine fee is the last You have caught the money from Raúl Flores and now Felipe Flores. Remember that nobody will help you like two years ago. "

In a letter addressed to Enrique Alfaro Ramírez handed to the Municipal Presidency of Guadalajara, dated October 31, 2017 and stamped by the municipality on the same date, that the tenants where the slot machines operated were tired of the constant payments of bribes that they had to do for the operation of the same thing.

"… the union to which I belong is very much struck by so much extortion by C. Juan Diego Eduardo Álvarez Cárdenas who says that he comes from the Guadalajara City Council because he is a person very close to you, and he is responsible for collecting payments every three days of the month and says that he gives to a close relative of you, who respect and ethic we omit his name, "says the letter of which one has copy.

In it they complain that they make monthly payments of 750 thousand pesos and that in a very occasion they were forced Delivered a luxury van as an additional payment.

According to the information obtained, the relative to whom they were referring was his brother David Alfaro Ramírez, who probably with his father-in-law collected the "quotas" not only of slot machines but of black turns controlled by organized crime. In particular, the CJNG

"Because of the above, we ask that another person come for the money and that it costs less."

The content of the letter was announced by the same people in charge of the gaming machines after the execution of David Alfaro Ramírez's father-in-law.

Raúl Flores Hernández and his cousin Felipe Flores Gómez who claims refers to the cover placed after the murder, the latter is a regidor of Autlán by the PRD, although In April 2017, he declared himself publicly independent and announced his support for Alfaro Ramírez for the post of governor .

According to information released by the United States Treasury Department in 2017, both are financial operators of the CJNG and the Sinaloa Cartel. Flores Hernández was arrested on July 20, 2017, accused of leading a money laundering network for both the Sinaloa cartel and the CJNG.

SALE WAR

"This level of dirty war is unpresentable, neither the PRI has done that.Now, the fence has been blown in. Seriously, the slot machines? Did not they arrive any better?

"Their printed canvases do not scare anyone or give them a single point in polls."

According to information confirmed by the journalist, at least one Alfaro Ramírez was asked by the American Embassy in Mexico for this case, but he escaped the meeting.

Jalisco is an important center for the production of synthetic drugs, money laundering and the passage for the For decades it has been a square with the hegemonic control of the Sinaloa cartel, but as a result of the internal war in the criminal organization and the emergence of the CJNG – in alliance with what remains of Beltrán Leyva – the state is in conflict between the two criminal organizations.

The journalist Anabel Hernández sent the following questions to the Alfaro team: