Former Secretary of Public Security of Acapulco Arrested in Case of Two Missing Marine Bodyguards

“Socalj” for Borderland Beat

On March 5, 2022, two Marines, Victoriano Rodríguez Zurita and Óscar González Andrade, who at the time were attached to the Acapulco Public Security Secretariat, disappeared after being commissioned as bodyguards for Senator José Narro Céspedes, and the then governor-elect and current governor of Tamaulipas, Américo Villarreal Anaya.

Over a year after the disappearance of these two Marines, Lieutenant Commander Maximiliano Serrano Pérez, the former Secretary of Public Security of Acapulco, Guerrero, was arrested on Monday, June 26, in Ahome, Los Mochis, Sinaloa, in a building located in the Topolobampo neighborhood, according to reports from the National Detention Registry.  The arrest was ordered by a federal judge and Serrano was transferred to Acapulco in regards to the case of the two missing Marines. He is currently being held at the Las Cruces prison.

Upon being arrested on Serrano Pérez, acknowledged that he assigned the sailors to the legislator following the order of the municipal president Abelina López Rodríguez. In response, the Mayor said that she has provided "all the information" that the Federal Public Ministry has requested about the disappearance of Victoriano Rodríguez Zurita and Óscar Manuel González Andrade.

The general secretary of the City Council, José Juan Ayala Villaseñor, reported that "the Acapulco municipal presidency does not have the powers or neither legal nor administrative to commission elements of municipal, state and/or federal Public Security to act as escorts neither for public servants nor for individuals."

The Missing Marines

According to the then Secretary of Public Security of Acapulco, on March 3, 2022, the Mayor called him to request two escorts for the Senator, on the pretext that they accompany him to an event related to the Revocation of Mandate. Serrano sent him two escorts he dated the commission documents that same day.

Narro reportedly gave the escorts a 2018 Audi SUV. Updates were reported to the Secretary on a regular basis. But since Sunday, March 5, at 8:00 p.m., he had not heard from them. He called the Senator to ask about the men and the Senator told him that on that night, he had instructed them to "rest for his consideration" and to return to Acapulco the following day. 

The Senator had uploaded photos of that day in the restaurant to his social networks. He had met with the current governor of Tamaulipas, Américo Villarreal, and with a man identified as a financial operator of the Cartel del Noreste, Teodoro Vázquez Barrera, "El Gerry," who has not been seen since as well.

One of the photos from the restaurant meeting featuring the Senator, Governor-Elect, "El Gerry" and the reflection of Marine Andrade.

Narro Céspedes later deleted those images. In some photos that the columnist Héctor de Mauleón later obtained, Narro and Villarreal are posing next to Gerry and four other people. In one of those photos, the face of one of the disappeared sailors, Óscar González Andrade, appeared reflected in the mirrors of a lamp. Presumably, he had taken the photo.

Despite the fact that various documents proved otherwise, Narro denied at all times that the missing men were commissioned as his escorts. Américo Villarreal, for his part, assured that he was unaware of the rest of the guests who were at the meal, including the alleged member of the Cartel del Noreste (CDN).

The following week, on March 7, 2022, Maximiliano Serrano reported the disappearance to his superiors. A short time later he was essentially removed from office and filed his resignation. Before leaving, he assured me that Abelina and Narro had requested the escorts. At the time, in July of 2022, it was stated by the Mayor that Serrano had received a promotion to the Secretary of the Navy.

The families filed an appeal for information and over a month later, it was finally known to them that the two Marines had been involved in the restaurant meeting as bodyguard escorts. Security cameras in the area of ​​their disappearance were also requested, but a month and a half later the footage had already been lost.

When the scandal broke in September, due to leaked DEA cables about the meeting and incidents, Narro and the mayor, Abelina López, denied having asked the Secretary for any escort. The leaked documents listed various bank transfers involving "El Gerry" and the future Tampauilipas Governor, Américo Villarreal.

US Ambassador to Mexico, Ken Salazer, denied that the leaked cables "are not from the US." This could be interpreted a couple of different ways, but he most likely meant that the US had not leaked the documents. President AMLO claimed the accusations of the CDN cartel financing a Morena campaign was misinformation and that it was political attacks by Morena party opponents as Villarreal was the future Governor.

The mayoress of Acapulco denied having sent the sailors. "That I didn't send the sailors, that I didn't sign anything, that I don't know anything." Narro declared that he did not employ escorts, that the sailors were not at his service, and that he could not know what had happened to them "because I am not a public prosecutor."

However, in a statement made before the CDMX prosecutor's office, the Senator admitted that he had requested it, even through a letter dated March 2. Narro accepted that the bodyguards (who he supposedly had not requested) had met him in a restaurant in Coyoacán, and that "a third person" accompanied them. He said he let them know their support was no longer needed.

Sources La Silla Rota, Borderland Beat

Graphics by HEARST