Cancun, Q.R. — The Attorney General’s Office of the Republic (FGR) reported that it has removed two of its prosecutors from office. They were removed from their positions so that they can be criminally charged for disregarding a court order.
The two prosecutors disobeyed a court order from May of 2019 to verify the lawful origin of more than 200 million pesos in diamonds. The diamonds are alleged to belong to a former Turkish banker who had high-end jewelry stores in Riviera Maya and along the coast of Quintana Roo, including at least one in Cancun.
The diamonds came from, what has been referred to, as a 2014 smuggling job in the city of Cancun. In 2014, state officials lost track of the cache of diamonds which were part of a larger collection seized from several stores along the coast. Some of the diamonds were eventually located in the possession of the two recently fired FGR prosecutors.
In a statement, the FGR said that they complied with a Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) ruling ordering the two prosecutors to be removed from their positions. According to the FGR, “the Agent of the Public Ministry of the Federation, Víctor Manuel “M”, and his immediate superior Celia “A”,” were removed from their positions.
“In immediate compliance with the determination of the Plenary of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation, and in accordance with what is indicated in articles 192 and 193 of the Amparo Law, the Attorney General of the Republic has proceeded to remove from his position the Agent of the Public Ministry of the Federation, Víctor Manuel “M”, and his immediate superior Celia “A”, for having failed to comply, in due time and form, with what was ordered by a Federal Amparo Judge, also initiating the corresponding folder for its consignment (judicialization),” the FGR reported in a statement.
One of the two now-fired prosecutors reportedly headed the State Attorney General’s Office (FGE) of Quintana Roo during the FGR diamond seizure in 2014.
While the pair remain unemployed, federal officials will carry out the procedures to check the legitimate ownership using invoices found for 4,569 jewels and diamonds insured by the FGR in Cancun in 2014.
