FOUR ALLEGED DRUG TRAFFICKERS ARRESTED

Guatemala, November 15, 2012. Today, the National Civil Police (PNC), together with the Public Prosecutor's Office (MP) and the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), arrested four alleged members of a criminal structure led by Mexican citizen Ramón Antonio Yánez Ochoa. The latter was linked to proceedings and imprisoned on September 17 along with Juni Fernando Enríquez Monzón (head of security at the Port of Quetzal).

The arrests were carried out in different locations within the Guatemalan territory in relation to charges of criminal association and conspiracy to traffic narcotics on an international scale.

Arrested:

• Óscar Orlando Padilla Urías, arrested in El Milagro, Masagua, Escuintla.
• José Adolfo Quiñónez González, arrested in Santa Rosa, La Democracia, Huehuetenango.
• Roberto Alonzo Ortíz, arrested in Ciénaga Grande, San José Pinula, Guatemala City.
• Erick Rolando Estrada Monzón, arrested in Planes de Bárcenas, Villa Nueva, Guatemala City.

At the searches the authorities recovered two vehicles, registered under the name of Yánez Ochoa, and four unlicensed firearms.

Background facts
On September 17, by order of the Ninth Court of the First Criminal Instance, Ramón Antonio Yánez Ochoa (a Mexican citizen) and the head of security at the Port of Quetzal, Juni Fernando Enríquez Monzón (a Guatemalan citizen), were remanded in custody and linked to proceedings due to their suspected links with drug trafficking.

Investigations revealed that the accused parties form part of a structure involved in processing and producing methamphetamines and transporting chemical precursors. Yánez Ochoa is accused of transporting drugs between Mexico and Guatemala since 2009, and he is sought by US law enforcement agencies for drug trafficking.

Yánez Ochoa and Enríquez Monzón were arrested on September 12 following six searches of premises conducted in various locations by the National Civil Police (PNC) along with the Public Prosecutor's Office (MP) and CICIG. A drug lab was found in the Santa Isabel warehouses at Kilometer 15 of the Chuarrancho highway. Methamphetamines were produced at the site.

CICIG supports the Public Prosecutor's Office in the investigation of this case.