Thursday, April 21, 2011

Mexican Zeta Attorney Handled Property Transfers In Kidnappings As Ransom Payments In Quintana Roo

Attorney Marco Antonio Gómez Rodríguez

Photo: SSP

Zeta attorney arrested by Mexican feds in Quintana Roo.

By H. Nelson Goodson
April 21, 2011

Mexico City, Mexico - On Wednesday, Mexican Federal Police arrested Attorney Marco Antonio Gómez Rodríguez for his part in transferring properties for ransom payoff's involving Zeta Cartel kidnappings. Rodríguez was taken into custody by police in the Benito Juarez municipality of Quintana Roo state, according to the Mexican Assistant Attorney General's Office Department of Special Investigations of Organized Crime (SIEDO). Rodríguez is accused of providing legal work for the Zetas and negiotiated payoff's for victims through the exchange of properties and cash for ransom.
Members of the Zeta's would kidnap local merchants or business owners and in return would later negiotiate their freedom with family members of the victims. Some family members would provide limited cash and the Zeta's would forced them to turn over land property ownership to make up the difference.
The Zeta's had Attorney Rodríguez handle their negiotiations and legal transactions in Cancún and the Playa del Carmen in Quintana Roo. Rodriguez would have his two secretaries Erika Castillo Acosta and Anabel Ruiz Magallanes take the land property titles to Notary Public # 46, Alma Lilia Luna Oliva in Puerto Morelos to notarize the title transfers, according to the SIEDO complaint.
The investigation began in 2008, when a female business owner was kidnapped and her family paid in cash $1.5 milliones de pesos ($125,000 U.S.), which included a property to complete the ransom at the time.
Rodríguez is also facing corruption charges involving state judicial police officials and a prison warden.

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