PGR opens investigation of agents caught on video planting weapons

Lucio R. Borderland Beat posted by Ed Oak from Arestigui and Bloomberg

Agent circled is the one to watch, from the time he exits the truck

The background of this case is very complex and involves a possible attempt by the Mexican Federal Government to silence the watchdog/auditing company, Infraiber.  The Federal Government believes Infraiber is releasing audio tapes implicating the Spanish conglomerate OHL in attempts to influence the awarding of huge state contracts for infrastructure work in the State of Mexico and the rest of the country.

Beneath the post is the video.  The person to watch, is a  male who exits  the front passenger side of the large white pickup, with jeans a black leather jacket and a baseball cap. Watch closely from the time the jacket wearing agent exits the white PGR truck, his right hand remains inside the pocket. PGR agent carefully video tapes search, which commences at all times except when the agent in the black jacket was in the vehicle. 

 The gun is planted 02:12 - 02:30.  After searching Díez and the trunk of the car, the planted gun is "found" at 06:00 - 06:15.  

Here's some background from a Bloomberg article:  

Latest Leaked OHL Recordings Threaten to Ensnare Pena Nieto

"The latest in a series of leaked telephone recordings involving toll operator OHL Mexico SAB is threatening to ensnare the country’s president.

A new recording released last week purports to show an OHL executive discussing a meeting he had with President Enrique Pena Nieto to complain about a company assigned to monitor traffic on one of its highways. The office of Pena Nieto, who hadn’t previously been a focus in the recordings, and OHL, declined to comment.

OHL accuses the monitoring company, Infraiber, of leaking the recordings -- audio clips that were captioned and uploaded to YouTube -- and filed a criminal complaint against the company last week. 

That claim was backed by a Pena Nieto cabinet minister, who told Reforma newspaper in a letter it published Sunday that the recordings were posted illegally by Infraiber. 

That minister is the one the recording purports to show was present during the meeting with Pena Nieto. Infraiber denied involvement in the recordings.

The events are the latest revelations in a scandal that has been unfolding since April largely via seven recordings uploaded to YouTube that purport to show OHL executives discussing ways to inflate toll rates, pay off judges and offer to cover a state official’s Christmas-week stay at a luxury Caribbean beach hotel.

Pena Nieto is already under scrutiny after conflict-of-interest allegations arose last year involving the president, the first lady and Finance Minister Luis Videgaray, and government contractors building their homes. While all three were cleared by a government investigation, the public’s approval rating of how the president is dealing with corruption has fallen from a year ago.

Just hours before the latest recording was posted, a lawyer representing Infraiber was arrested for allegedly carrying an illegal weapon. He said the gun was planted by the police. Authorities raided Infraiber’s offices Friday after the complaint was filed, but haven’t said whether they charged anyone from the company.

“There seems to be a coordinated effort between the government and OHL to put an end to this scandal,” Gerardo Cevallos, an analyst at Vector Casa de Bolsa based in Mexico City, said Sept. 10. “That’s what appears to have happened this week -- this accusation by OHL, the arrest of the lawyer.”

Gun in yellow evidence bag

This week brought another twist: Mexico’s attorney general’s office said Monday it was investigating the arrest, saying police probably filed false information in the case.

In the recording released Sept. 7 and dated early April, a man identified in captions as an OHL executive refers to a meeting he supposedly had with Pena Nieto and Communications and Transportation Minister Gerardo Ruiz Esparza. In the meeting they mention the independent traffic monitor, Tecnologia Aplicada Infraiber SA. Esparza’s press office declined to comment for this article, although it confirmed that the cabinet minister sent the letter to Reforma about Infraiber.

Paulo Diez, a lawyer for Infraiber, said in an interview that he was stopped in his car by federal authorities on Sept. 7 who sought his testimony on OHL’s case against phone tapping. He was asked to step out of the car and when his back was turned, an official pulled a weapon from his vehicle that Diez says was planted. He spent two nights in jail and posted bail on Wednesday, he said.

Reforma reports:

The full one hour video, was delivered to the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) by the litigant himself, to extend his complaint of an unlawful detention.   

The attorney says a local forward to him video footage showing events which are the subject of his complaint.  The complaint makes reference to a man dressed in all dark clothing, wearing  a baseball cap as the person who placed the weapon in the vehicle. On the tape at 14:40 on September 7^th.

"One of the locals, forwarded  me video footage of the event, at the time of my arrest. It shows  one of the officers dressed in dark clothing, including a jacket and cap, he inserts the weapon into my vehicle.  This shows the events which are the subject of this complaint" states Díez in its letter to the CNDH. 

On the tape, we see that at approximately 14:40 pm last Sept. 7, PGR agents aboard white trucks, intercept the  Gargari Diez vehicle.  There is only one agent not wearing a white shirt, he is wearing jeans and a black jacket.  He mostly keeps his hands inside his pockets.  He is seen with half his body inside the vehicle, while everyone else is at the trunk area.  He straightens up and quickly disappears.

Diez says while he was in custody, his IM message history had been illegally extracted.  Later he saw that on September 9, 2015 at 19:51 someone had used his email, via his cell, to send a history of WhatsApp chats to andresfuentes201282@gmail.com.

Rest assured the PGR agency is instigating and will get to the bottom of these concerns.