The unfreezing of the CJNG accounts, frozen in June in an U.S.-Mexico cooperative operation

 Chivis Martinez Borderland Beat  Zeta

In June, directly the head of the Financial Intelligence Unit of the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit, Santiago Nieto, boasted - that in an operation he called "Blue Agave", they had managed to freeze the bank accounts of 1,939 entities , between people, companies, and trusts linked to the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación criminally headed by Nemesio Oceguera, "El Mencho." The operation had the direct involvement of the United States Anti-Narcotics Agency, the main source of the location of the criminal targets.

The figures of the seized and the investigated were really impressive, billions of dollars in illicit operations, the same in international operations, and interbank transfers for more than 650 million pesos.

The President of the Republic, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, not only confirmed the operation in one of his morning conferences, but also reported that it had been based on an express request from the United States.

On the morning of June 3, he answered: “There was a request from the United States Government in the sense that they had information, and according to the cooperation agreements, they had to freeze accounts of this group and that was what made".

In the freezing of accounts, there was everything from sisters and sisters-in-law of noted drug traffickers and their wives, to pharmaceutical companies, real estate companies, automotive companies, construction companies, tequila companies and even municipal governments of Jalisco.

But ... there was a problem in the process, and the vaunted action against the CJNG by the López Obrador government did not have the collaboration of the Attorney General's Office.

To date, as stated in a ZETA report by Luis Carlos Sainz, at least two women, five mayors and others, have managed to have their savings and checking accounts unfrozen. And two more people, all linked to the Oseguera family circle, are awaiting a judicial resolution, which, based on the background, is presumed favorable for them.

It turns out that the UIF managed directly with the National Banking and Securities Commission, the freezing of the accounts, and a thesis of the Second Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation, provides that the block of financial resources only proceeds upon request. of a foreign authority based on the Cooperation Treaty between the United States and Mexico, and that this request must be addressed to the FGR, which is the coordinated Mexican authority.

Once this process is carried out, the FGR is channeled to the competent authority. In any case, the FIU should have reported such illegal conduct to the Attorney General's Office, and this should have been notified by the Ministry of Foreign Relations, of the foreign petition.

But the Financial Intelligence Unit "received" directly from the U.S., a foreign authority, a case confirmed by the President, and acted accordingly, therefore legally, since the FGR was not the receiving authority and the authority of the action, it was violated Due process and those “affected” with the freezing of accounts, their rights are restored.

This is the case of Erika and Berenice González Valencia, sisters-in-law of “El Mencho”, sisters of Abigail González Valencia “El Cuini”, to whom a district court based in Jalisco, granted provisional suspension so that “authorities can unblock/unfreeze the blocking”.

Those who also managed to have their resources, and those of their relatives, unblocked, from a provisional suspension, are the Mayors of Auxtlán, Ixtalahuacán, El Grullo, Villa Purificación and Casimiro Castillo.

Regarding the unfreezing of accounts insured in the Agave Azul operation, neither the Attorney General of the Republic, Alejandro Gertz Manero, nor the head of the UIF, Santiago Nieto, have declared anything, however… the animosity between them is known.

In January 2020, in an appearance, Gertz Manero expressed: "The FGR has been very respectful of the presumption of innocence ... because there are units, not from the Prosecutor's Office, but from the Government, that do not respect that presumption." She completed: "Government units affirm facts that may affect the criminal procedure, because then they accuse us of faults in due process and that we do not do."

It was evident, as it is now that the Agave Azul operation is failing, that the Attorney General of the Republic was referring to the acts of the Financial Intelligence Unit, whose actions, at least in the present case, are being suspended with suspensions and shelters.

On another occasion, at a discussion table with Aristegui Noticias , the Prosecutor Gertz Manero, referred to the FIU: “You tell me that an Intelligence Unit has no other functions than to obtain intelligence information, so why does it perform functions of authority and it freezes accounts and generates behaviors that the SCJN has already said are absolutely unconstitutional, you are talking about something that seems to be a schizophrenic contradiction”.

In the same program, the Attorney General of the Republic sentenced: “It is not about making media scandals. It is about giving legal results”.

And indeed, the Agave Azul operation, which was predicted by the media, is falling in court, due to the suspensions granted to the relatives of "El Mencho" and "El Cuini" to make use of the resources that were frozen, the same than other actors. And although the amparo has not been granted, the judges presume that the FIU and the Ministry of Finance, by not having the collaboration of the authority responsible and coordinating international agreements, the FGR, violated due process. Sure, until the federal government proves otherwise, then they can freeze them again.