Sunday, June 5, 2011

Mexican Military Arrest Tijuana's Former Mayor Hank Rhon For Possession of Illegal Weapons

Jorge Hank Rhon

Photo: Terra

Illegal arsenal of weapons discovered at the home of a former Tijuana mayor.

By H. Nelson Goodson
June 5, 2011

Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico - On Saturday, the Mexican Federal Attorney General's Office (PGR) and  the Secretary for National Defense (Sedena) reported that former Tijuana Mayor Jorge Hank Rhon, 55, a self-proclaimed billionaire who served in office between 2004 to 2007 for the PRI political party had been arrested in connection with possession of illegal weapons. Sedena confirmed that, military personnel investigating a citizen complaint registered on early Saturday at 2:00 a.m. of three armed suspects near the Palacio Hotel resulted with a tip of illegal guns at a local home. When a military unit caught several suspects with guns, they confessed that more weapons could be found at a residence in the Hipódromo Agua Caliente neighborhood. The information led the military to a residence at 3:30 a.m. owned by Rhon where they found 88 weapons. Rhon was present at home when he was taken into custody for federal violation of possession of weapons reserved for the military only. The military confiscated 40 rifles, 48 handguns, 9,298 cartridges, a gas grenade and 70 magazines for ammunition, according to Sedena.
La Jornada Newspaper reported that Rhon during the investigation by the Baja California Attorney General's Office interview, he thought, that one of his sons was playing a joke on him, but quickly realized it wasn't a joke when Rhon saw one of his bodyguards under arrest. Rhon's wife, María Elvia Amaya de Hank and some of his children were at home when their home was searched for at least four hours. Rhon has 19 children from different relationships.
Along with Rhon, 10 of his employees were also arrested. They are Luis Alfonso Guerrero, Ramón López Apodaca, Juan Ignacio Parra Santos, Marco Antonio Trinidad Gómez, Javier Marco Polo,
Rubén Muñoz Nava, Pablo Gonzalo Pérez Contreras, Rigoberto Sánchez and Víctor Manuel Orta. Rhon and his employees were transported to Mexico City for their processing by the Federal PGR.
In 2007, Rhon ran an unsuccessfully for governor of Baja California. He owns the soccer Club of the Xolos de Tijuana, which just qualified for the first division play-offs, has multiple casinos and one of the largest Zoo's in Mexico, which has 20,000 animals in exhibition.

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