COURT LINKS SUSPECTED DRUG TRAFFICKERS TO PROCEEDINGS

Guatemala, November 20, 2012. Yesterday, the Eighth Court of the First Criminal Instance ordered that Mexican citizens Luis Javier Flores Flores and Christian Emanuel Estrada Rodríguez be linked to proceedings and remanded in custody. The pair are accused of forming part of a criminal structure (led by fellow Mexican Ramón Antonio Yánez Ochoa) involved in internationally transporting chemical precursors (banned substances used to produce synthetic drugs).

Flores Flores was linked to proceedings on charges of conspiracy to internationally transport banned substances, criminal association and money laundering, and Estrada Rodríguez faces charges of internationally transporting banned substances and criminal association. Both are accused of coordinating the transportation of precursors.

In the same case, on November 16, Óscar Orlando Padilla Urías, José Adolfo Quiñónez González, Roberto Alonzo Ortíz and Erick Rolando Estrada Monzón were linked to proceedings and remanded in custody on charges of internationally transporting banned substances and criminal association.

The six accused parties were arrested on November 15 in different parts of Guatemala by the National Civil Police (PNC), together with the Public Prosecutor's Office (MP) and the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG). At the searches, the authorities recovered two vehicles registered under the name of Yánez Ochoa and four unlicensed firearms.

In this case, CICIG acts as a complementary prosecutor and supports the MP in its investigations.

Background
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 Port Quetzal, Juni Fernando Enríquez Monzón (a Guatemalan citizen), were remanded in custody and linked to proceedings for their suspected drug trafficking links.

Investigations revealed 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 MP and CICIG. A drug lab was found in the Santa Isabel warehouses at Kilometer 15 of the Chuarrancho highway. Methamphetamines had been produced at the site.