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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | April 2006 
Mexico City Authorities Detain Five People with more than U.S.$1 Million in Cash
 E. Eduardo Castillo - Associated Press
| | Three unidentified women and two men stand in front of a large quantity of cash after they were detained by police in Mexico City, Mexico on Tuesday. The police detained them carrying $1 million in cash in the country's capital. (AP) |
Mexico City – Mexico City authorities detained five Mexicans carrying US$1 million (euro 820,000) in cash in a major tourist area of the capital, and are investigating them for possible links to drug trafficking or other organized crime.
Three women and two men from the northwestern state of Sinaloa, home base for one of Mexico's most notorious drug traffickers, were taken into custody late Tuesday night in the city's central tourist area known as the “Pink Zone,” the Mexico City Public Safety Department said in a news release.
The five were captured while apparently awaiting instructions for turning the money over to someone else, the department said. It did not elaborate.
Police officers suspected something was wrong when they saw a man and a woman standing on the street who looked “terrified” when the patrol car passed by, the news release said. The pair quickly jumped inside a car where two women were waiting and tried to drive away. When police cut them off, a second man appeared, and he and the others were detained.
In addition to the cash, which police found stuffed inside a suitcase, authorities also found two .38-caliber pistols, 10 cell phones, credit cards and three fake voting credentials.
The three women told police they could keep the money if they let them go free, the news release said.
The five detainees were turned over to the federal Attorney General's Office, which is responsible for investigating drug traffickers and other organized crime.
Sinaloa is the home base of convicted drug trafficker Joaquin Guzman, who escaped from a maximum-security prison in 2001 and has never been found.
Guzman is one of the most-wanted fugitives both in Mexico and the United States. U.S. authorities have offered a US$5 million (euro4 million) reward for his capture.
In December, Mexican Attorney General Daniel Cabeza de Vaca said Guzman was close to being caught and is practically no longer running the cartel. |
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