Andorra links a deceased PRI deputy to the Sinaloa cartel and investigates his heirs

2022-12-14T11:17:52.621Z

A judge from the European country investigates the relatives and the political environment of Oscar Javier Lara Aréchiga, who hid at least 6 million in the BPA and moved 17 through a network in Panama and the Dutch Antilles

Oscar Javier Lara Aréchiga PRI Parliamentary Group

An Andorran judge is investigating the heirs and political environment of Oscar Javier Lara Aréchiga, who was a deputy of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) for Sinaloa, for money laundering, according to the documents to which EL PAÍS has had access.

Lara Aréchiga, who died in October 2017 as a result of cancer, came to hide at least six million dollars in the Banca Privada d'Andorra (BPA) and move 17 through a convoluted financial network in Panama and the Dutch Antilles, as revealed by this newspaper.

The Andorran magistrate Stéphanie Garcia justifies in a recent order her decision to focus on the direct family and political environment of the former leader as a way to prove the origin of the funds that he accumulated in the BPA.

Sources close to the investigation confirm that the investigations are open.

With these wicks, the judge has decided to investigate the widow of the former president, Beatriz del Carmen Teresita Esquer de Lara, and her children, Beatriz del Carmen, Óscar Javier and José María Lara Esquer.

Along with the heirs, the instructor also investigates José Luis Lara Aréchiga, brother of the former deputy.

According to the investigation, the funds hidden by Lara Aréchiga in Andorra are connected to Grupo Viz, the business conglomerate led by the former municipal president of Culiacán (2008-2010), Secretary of Economic Development of Sinaloa (2005-2007) and deputy for this State of the PRI (2003-2004), Jesús Vizcarra Calderón.

The judge points out that the latter, who is not charged in the case, "is related to the Sinaloa cartel."

The instructor also connects the deceased Oscar Javier Lara Aréchiga with this drug trafficking organization.

"Lara would have maintained ties with members of the Sinaloa cartel, known for being an organized group dedicated to drug trafficking, arms, money laundering and other illicit acts," says García about the former PRI deputy, who was Secretary of State Administration and Finance between 1999 and 2009.

The magistrate points out that, after the ex-deputy's criminal case was extinguished due to death, his relatives are "directly responsible civil servants."

And unless they renounce the hidden money in Andorra, "the hearing of the case must be held and a sentence passed, declaring or not the existence of the crime and agreeing or not on the confiscation [of the funds]."

Despite the insistent requests of the heirs in March and July of this year to unfreeze the funds of the former PRI deputy in the BPA, the Andorran instructor has refused to adopt this measure.

"The investigation of the case must continue in order to determine the purpose of the assets and funds of the deceased defendant," the order reads.

The judge links the accounts in the BPA of the former president of Sinaloa with a network of money laundering through the purchase of credits with a company that had accounts in Spain and Mexico.

She also assures that the funds were able to reach the European Principality through exchange houses in Mexico through a compensation system (capital evasion technique).

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operations or parallel loans are suitable for laundering," the court document states.

With a degree in Economics, Lara Aréchiga was deputy for Sinaloa of the PRI and Secretary of State Administration and Finance.

He also held the positions of regional director of the Banco del Atlántico, regional counselor of the Banco Nacional de Crédito Rural and the same position at Nacional Financiera.

Likewise, he was deputy director general of Infrastructure of Sagarpa.

This newspaper has unsuccessfully tried to contact the lawyer for Oscar's heirs Javier Lara Aréchiga and obtain the version of his brother José Luis, who is also being investigated for money laundering in Andorra.

EL PAÍS revealed in 2017 that Lara Aréchiga hid an opaque company in tax havens such as Panama or the Netherlands Antilles with which she moved 16.8 million dollars.

Her business was managed by BK Group, a Dutch trust services company.

Lara Aréchiga's offshore

company

was called Riana International BV, -today one of those investigated for money laundering in Andorra- it depended on the company Riana NV in the Dutch Antilles, on the Panamanian Riana Development Inc and this on the Hazare Foundation in Panama, a Family Asset Management (family fund manager) created by the Private Bank of Andorra, a bank intervened for money laundering in March 2015 and where the unspeakable fortunes of PRI politicians nested such as the senator of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) Sylvana Beltrones Sánchez, the only daughter of the man who was until 2016 president of the tricolor formation and one of the most influential figures in Mexican politics, Manlio Fabio Beltrones.

investigacion@elpais.es

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