Spain hands over to Mexico Alonso Ancira, implicated in the 'Lozoya case'

Spain has confirmed the delivery of Alonso Ancira to the Mexican justice.

The Altos Hornos de México (AHMSA) businessman was arrested in Palma de Mallorca in May 2019. Mexico had ordered his arrest for his links to the former director of Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex), Emilio Lozoya, accused of corruption.

The Attorney General's Office is investigating four transfers for $ 3.4 million made between June and November 2012 from Ancira's company to Tochos Holding, an offshore company where the former oil executive received bribes to later buy a house west of the Mexican capital.

The National Court has given the green light this Friday to the delivery of the businessman, considering that the acts pursued by Mexico have not prescribed and are also crimes in Spain.

In November 2012, after receiving the transfers, Lozoya acquired a house in the luxurious residential area of ​​Lomas de Bezares.

A month later, already as director of Pemex, the politician suggested to the company's board of directors to rehabilitate and acquire the Agronitrogenados de Fertinal plant, owned by AHMSA.

It had been inactive for 14 years and was bought at a premium for $ 275 million when its value had been appraised at $ 58 million.

The facts that Ancira is accused of today for this transaction are bribery and money laundering or misappropriation of public resources.

The order issued by the Criminal Chamber of the National Court affirms that in this case there is no political persecution, an argument used by Ancira in front of the judges to stop his delivery to Mexico.

In March of this year, the businessman had requested to remain in Spain, alleging that justice did not exist in his country and that the accusations against him were fabrications motivated by political revenge.

"He is not a subject who is in his sanity ... the president of Mexico," Ancira told Judge María Riera.

The Agronitrogenados plant had 60% of its machinery in an unusable state, according to reports from the Superior Auditor of the Federation.

The operation opened a hole in the finances of Pemex, which already had serious financial problems.

Over time, the purchase cost him $ 1.4 billion in an attempt to revive the fertilizer industry.

When in fact it was due to a payment of favors from a new public official to a businessman.

The only winner in that transaction was Altos Hornos.

The links between Ancira and Lozoya have been verified.

The former Pemex director made at least 54 helicopter trips to the GAN tower in Polanco, where the businessman's offices are located, who is returning to Mexico to face justice.

Mexican authorities believe that Lozoya bought the Lomas de Bezares home with illicit money.

The Intelligence Unit of the Ministry of Finance affirms that the appeal came from bribes out of accounts managed by the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht, a company at the center of dozens of corruption scandals throughout the Americas, and laundered through tax havens.

The suspicion led the Government of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to freeze the accounts of Lozoya, who today has become a collaborator of justice to expose a corruption scheme that targets the top of the Government of Enrique Peña Nieto.

The cases have not only resulted in Lozoya's financial freeze.

They have affected his entire family.

Her sister, Gilda Susana, was also prevented from accessing her bank accounts.

His mother, Gilda Austin, 71, was arrested in Germany in July and transferred to Mexico.

Since November, he has been under house arrest while he is being investigated for having received in his accounts part of the money that Lozoya is suspected of collecting from bites.