Mexico investigates three trips to Andorra by the prosecutor who released the fortune of Peña Nieto's lawyer

The lawyer Juan Collado during his wedding with the actress Yadhira Carrillo in 2019.Francisco Rodríguez / Cuartoscuro

The Attorney General's Office of Mexico (FGR) is investigating three “unusual” trips to Spain and Andorra by Alberto Alcántara Martínez, former general coordinator of Investigation of that institution.

The high official allegedly favored the filing of the case against the lawyer Juan Ramón Collado Mocelo, who is being investigated in the Principality for money laundering.

Collado, a lawyer for former president Enrique Peña Nieto, of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), hid 120 million dollars (107 million euros) in the Banca Privada d'Andorra (BPA) between 2006 and 2015. Alcántara's efforts made it possible to unlock this money.

The Mexican prosecutor's office is investigating alleged irregularities of officials of that institution who during Peña Nieto's mandate (2012-2018) provided false information to the Andorran authorities so that they would file the case against Collado.

All his suspicions are focused on Alcántara, who has been dismissed from his post.

The visits of the prosecutor to Spain and the Principality of Andorra, a tiny Pyrenean country of 75,000 inhabitants between Spain and France shielded until 2017 by bank secrecy, are investigated.

Alcántara met in those "unusual" trips with the attorney general of Andorra, Alfons Alberca, and with judges Canòlic Mingorance and María Àngels Moreno, who were investigating Collado's case for money laundering, as confirmed by two sources from the investigation to this newspaper. Going to Andorra to deliver the results of an investigation in Mexico was something out of the ordinary that caused surprise, according to the sources consulted. The rogatory commissions (request for legal aid) between the two countries are always made by mail. Alcántara did not want to respond to requests for comment from this newspaper.

What was talked about in the trips being investigated?

“The main purpose of these trips was to convince the Andorran authorities that Collado was an exemplary citizen and that the origin of his money was legal.

Alcántara, more than a prosecutor, seemed like Collado's lawyer ”, says a source familiar with the encounters.

"The Bank of Mexico, the Treasury, the Presidency, all conspired to free Collado's funds," he added.

The strategy of Alcántara and of the Prosecutor's Office of the Government of Peña Nieto, as revealed by this newspaper, consisted of initiating an investigation in Mexico on the Collado funds to justify their origin, archive the case and prevent the Andorran Justice from continuing with the cause being a fact already judged.

Thus, they produced a report in which the origin of Collado's fortune was blessed.

“It follows that [Collado] obtains legal income.

The exercise of the criminal action (neap) does not proceed ”, affirmed then the representative of the Mexican Public Ministry Anahí Marcela Mendoza.

The Andorran Prosecutor's Office objected to the presentation of the aforementioned report, but Alcántara returned again with the document validated by a judge.

In 2018, his efforts led the Andorran Justice to provisionally file the case and release the 93 million dollars (76.5 million euros) that then accumulated the rosary of accounts of the influential lawyer.

The report of the Attorney General's Office (PGR) of Mexico - which is what the Prosecutor's Office was then called - justified the origin and legality of the fortune of the powerful lawyer.

Irregular investigation

The Attorney General's Office of Mexico has sent a letter rogatory to Andorra in which it informs that it is investigating Alcántara for a crime against the Administration of Justice.

The Public Ministry asks to know the information on the three trips of this high official and any data that proves his participation in the investigation on Collado.

A lawyer who, together with Peña Nieto, has defended relevant figures of

the

Mexican

establishment

,

like the union leader of Pemex Carlos Romero Deschamps;

the former governor of Quintana Roo, the PRI Mario Villanueva;

Raúl Salinas de Gortari, businessman and brother of former Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari.

"Three unusual trips by Alberto Alcántara, general coordinator of Investigation, under the concept of working meetings with various authorities of the attorney general's office, were carried out as extraordinary work commissions," says the letter signed by Guadalupe Rodríguez Cruz, Director of Legal Assistance International.

And he argues it like this: “The investigation file was started on the occasion of the complaint made by Collado (the lawyer initiated the procedure in Mexico), actions that at all times were endorsed by Alberto Alcántara requesting the Government of the Principality of Andorra to dismiss the cause for having decreed the non-exercise of criminal action.

Hence, it concludes that said investigation was irregularly integrated and that the determination made was contrary to the law, thereby causing the Government of Andorra to be misinformed of said investigation. "

The

Collado case

took an unexpected turn in July 2019. Already with Andrés Manuel López Obrador in government, the lawyer was arrested in Mexico for money laundering and organized crime (similar crimes for which his case was provisionally filed in Andorra).

And, a month after the arrest, the Andorran court that was investigating the lawyer reopened the case and frozen 93 million dollars (76 million euros) from the attorney in power.

The neap promoted by Alcántara became the main weapon to paralyze the investigation of Collado and other proteges of Peña Nieto with millionaire funds hidden in the Banca Privada d'Andorra (BPA).

This strategic resource forced the filing of the Andorran case against Alfredo del Mazo, governor of the State of Mexico and powerful president of the PRI.

Del Mazo hid in 2012, when he was mayor of Huixquilucan, 1.5 million in BPA, as revealed by EL PAÍS.

The BPA was closed in 2015 by the Andorran authorities for corruption.

The entity accepted as clients politicians from the PRI;

to the plot of ex-ministers of Hugo Chávez (1999-2013) who looted 2,000 million from Petróleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA);

and senior officials from Peru, Panama, Colombia and Ecuador who collected bribes from the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht in exchange for the award of works.

The Chinese and Russian mafias also turned to this financial institution.

Six days before his arrest in Mexico for alleged money laundering, Collado transferred 11.6 million dollars (10.5 million euros) from Andorra to an account at BBVA in Madrid.

The recipient of the money remains a mystery.