Boxes of Money found in Tabasco related to "the looting"

Borderland Beat

VILLAHERMOSA, Tabasco - The head of the Attorney General of the state (PGJ), Fernando Valenzuela Pernas, exhibited yesterday afternoon what amounted to 88 million 560 thousand 134 pesos in cash seized from people linked to Jose Manuel Saiz Pineda, Secretary of Finance in the Andrés Granier Melo government of the state of Tabasco.

At a press conference, Valenzuela Pernas reported that investigations on the looting of Tabasco, led at 4:00 am to a house the Lomitas area in the municipality of Nacajuca about 15 miles north of the capital. They found five cardboard boxes filled with cash. Also seized two desktop computers and one laptop. 

In one cardboard box they found 500 bundles of 500 pesos notes, a second box 70 bundles of 500 pesos notes, in the third 10 packs of one thousand notes, two of one thousand and 500 peso  notes 18 more of 500 pesos notes and five of 200 pesos.

In the fourth box were found 23 bundles 500 peso notes and in the fifth box there were various banknotes of different denominations.

PGJ mentioned that so far 25 people have said linked to the looting Tabasco.

After the finding and based on statements of people involved, a warrant was requested, and at 14:00 hours entered the office of former Secretary of Finance, José Manuel Saiz Pineda, located at 1113 Sanchez Street Magallanes center of capital.

There was found and seized "abundant" documents and ledgers, presumably related to the ex-Governor Granier Melo's budget and to be audited by experts of the PGJ.

Ex-Governor Andrés Granier Melo called to testify  Photo: Eduardo Miranda

Pernas Valenzuela announced that on instructions from Governor Arturo Nunez Jimenez, the secured money will be deposited at the branch of Banjército of the capital, until the appropriate steps towards due diligence are taken..

At a press conference, the state leader of the PAN, Jorge Luis Avalos Ramon, and the local deputy Francisco Castillo Ramirez showcased a list of 19 properties, residences and lots appearing on behalf of the former governor Andrés Granier Melo in the Public Registry,

Among all these properties is included 850 square meters in Miramar Beach, in the coastal municipality of Centla, where the former governor built, in the middle of his term, a huge and luxurious mansion with pool and finest of finishes, according to photographs published by a local newspaper.

Current Governor Arturo Nunez of the opposition Democratic Revolution Party has repeatedly accused his predecessor of having left a public debt of millions of dollars and of representing Mexico's corrupt, old-style politics (PRI). 

Local media recently made public an audio recording in which Granier boasted about owning hundreds of suits, pairs of shoes and of only shopping at the best stores in Beverly Hills.

Former Governor Granier Melo later tried to save face by saying he was boasting about the things he doesn't have because he was drunk. 

Pernas Valenzuela official said that in the next 15 days, former collaborators of Granier Melo implicated in the embezzlement of the state coffers will be forced to appear.  Ex-Governor Granier Melo who is presently in Miami will be forced to appear as well as Saiz Pineda himself, and the ex-under secretary of the Secretariat of Finance, Miguel Angel Contreras..

Saiz Pineda and other former officials face charges before the PGR and the PGJ for the disappearance of over one thousand 900 million pesos stolen from education, public safety, federal healthcare programs, among others, led to the healthcare collapse late last year.

The Tabasco governor Nunez Jimenez has repeatedly denounced former governor Granier Melo's PRI tenure saying the state was the victim of "rapacious looting" that left a legacy of a 20 billion peso debt, when six years ago they barely reached 600 million pesos.

More experts from the Attorney General's Office (PGR) in the Tabasco Federal District will arrive this afternoon and assist in the accounting audits and continue with the investigation.

The federal Attorney General's Office has also opened an investigation into the handling of public funds by Granier, Interior Secretary Miguel Angel Osorio Chong told Radio Formula on Wednesday."We will investigate and get to the bottom of this," Osorio Chong said. 

He denied Granier is getting preferential treatment for being a member of the PRI.

"The investigation is going at the speed it needs to go," he said. "There are things being made public by the media but that doesn't mean they are evidence."

The PRI governed Mexico for 71 years and was seen as a party that encouraged corruption and authoritarianism. It lost the presidency for the first time in 2000 but it returned to power on Dec. 1 with Pena Nieto, who has said that his party has changed and that he will not stand for illegality.

Politicians and union leaders have not been shy about showing their extravagant homes and brand name clothes and jewelry despite their low salaries, leading many to suspect they were funding their flamboyant taste with public funds.

Sources: Tabascohoy,Proceso, Proceso,mysanantonio,Correo.