ALLEGED FRONT MAN OF "EL TAQUERO" REMANDED IN CUSTODY

Guatemala, April 16, 2013. Today, Court A of the First Instance for High-Risk Matters ordered that Ignacio de Jesús Folgar Morales be remanded in custody and linked to proceedings for criminal association and money laundering. Folgar Morales is an alleged front man of Marvin Montiel Marín (known as "El Taquero" and leader of the organization allegedly responsible for murdering 16 bus passengers in 2008).

At the initial appearance, Judge Carol Patricia Flores Polanco found enough evidence to remand Folgar Morales, who was arrested on Saturday 13 April in the municipality of San José Pinula while travelling in his own vehicle.

Among the evidence filed by the Public Prosecutor's Office (MP) and the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) were statements and documents demonstrating the manner in which the accused, as part of his functions in the criminal organization, absconded properties to make them appear legal. The investigations established that the assets belonged to Montiel Marín.

CICIG acts as a complementary prosecutor in the criminal proceedings.

Background
On November 8, 2008, Montiel Marín, an alleged drug trafficker in the Zacapa area, along with a group of hit men, intercepted a bus that was en route from Nicaragua with 16 passengers on board and took it to his ranch in Río Hondo. At the ranch, all the people travelling on the bus were murdered and then doused in gasoline and burned.

Two amparo applications filed by the defense counsel and the public prosecutors' office are yet to be ruled on, stalling the opening of oral proceedings against seven members of the criminal structure. Montiel Marín and Sara Elizabeth Cruz Mancilla, who previously shared the same abode, are among the seven structure members set to stand trial.