MEXICO. -The Televisa group has stated that none of the 18 detainees accused of money laundering and organized crime in Nicaragua posing as journalists "have worked" for the network, and also separated itself from the vehicles seized from them, according to a recent press release.
The media group declared that it had "formally separated" from the alleged affiliation the arrested had with Televisa before the Mexican Attorney's Office, and that the document is already being processed to "be known by the Nicaraguan authorities."
The 18 Mexican citizens were detained on August 20 in possession of 9.2 million dollars with cocaine traces on the bills at a security check point in Nicaragua near the border with Honduras; they claimed to be Televisa's journalists.
The company maintains that if "the information in the sense of the detainees having forged documents to pass as Televisa's employees and/or forging the vehicles' information becomes official, the corresponding lawsuits will be filed."
"The company has cooperated with the Mexican authorities and their investigation from the moment the action took place," states the release.
Last August 25 a judge admitted the accusation presented against the arrested people by the Nicaraguan Attorney's Office for the crimes of money laundering and organized crime; the judge ordered preventive prison.
According to the accusation by the Attorney's Office, the detainees entered Nicaragua in six equipped mobile television units bearing Televisa's logo; they came from Mexico and had Costa Rica as their destination.
The group was led by Raquel Alatorre Correa and one of the arrested, Cecilio López Gutiérrez, seems to be a policeman from the Mexican city of Durango, according to authorities.
The Nicaraguan authorities haven't ruled out if the detainees are part of an international drug network allegedly linked to the murder of Argentinean artist Facundo Cabral in Guatemala last year.
editorial@sandiegored.com
Original Text : EFE Agency
Translation: Karen Balderas
