Photo: Google

By KELIN DILLON

On Tuesday, March 25, Mexico’s Attorney General of the Republic (FGR) Alejandro Gertz Manero revealed the FGR has seized control of Rancho Izaguirre as it begins its investigation into the controversial Teuchitlán clandestine crematorium case.

Gertz Manero also highlighted the FGR’s capture of José Gregorio “N”, an associate of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) who identified himself as responsible for the organized crime group’s recruitment process.

“We were able to get the Control Judge to arrest this individual formally, and he is now in a high-security prison,” said Gertz Manero. “With the federal action already underway, the Attorney General’s Office, the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the police, and the forensic experts took possession of the facility early this morning.”

With the ranch now in the FGR’s possession, Gertz Manero stressed that the investigation is now squarely in the hands of Mexico’s federal authorities – and no longer in that of the local Jalisco Prosecutor’s Office, which has been embroiled in controversy over its failures in handling the case.

The state prosecutor will be required to hand over any evidence it encountered during its own investigation to the FGR, though it has yet to give the federal authorities any of its findings, said Gertz Manero.

“At this point, it’s a federal matter. Federal authorities are occupying that site, and experts are coming in to determine the reality of what’s there,” continued the prosecutor, noting that the federal officials would be on strict schedules to turn in their findings.

“From the moment they take charge, which they are doing now, I believe that today they should give us a specific deadline, clearly, in days, of what they will report to us from the expert reports, and how they will give it to us,” he added. 

“I believe we’re going to be sequentially obtaining data that we should make public, because that’s one of the most serious problems that place has,” concluded Gertz Manero.