After being postponed several times, on Saturday the former mayor of Celestún Leonel Rosado Mena (2018-2021) was finally linked to criminal proceedings, as well as an individual.
Both are prohibited from leaving Yucatán and must go every month to sign, in addition to the fact that -if found guilty- they could spend 14 years in prison for corruption crimes; according to the culmination of the initial hearing carried out in the Control Court of the State Judiciary.
According to the information collected in the Courts, this is part of the facts for which a businessman had also been previously linked to criminal proceedings, because through his actions he would have illegally benefited a legal entity dedicated to the real estate industry with the purchase of three coastal land belonging to that municipality.
The defendants had been delaying this process for several weeks arguing changes in defense attorneys, until they were finally convicted of criminal charges.
What is the so-called “Yucatec coast mafia” accused of?
For these illegal acts, former councilors have also been identified as involved, who would have ignored multiple legal provisions to carry out the alienation of the properties, simulating city council minutes and machining the operation with false documentation, the same properties whose borders with the Gulf of Mexico add up to more than 720 linear meters of beach, The foregoing in favor of three individuals who paid only 400,000 pesos for the real estate, which actually has a commercial value of 57,245,196 pesos and 49 cents, causing a significant patrimonial affectation to the municipality.
According to what was stated in the hearing, the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor accused those involved not only for the illegal sale of the land without complying with legal requirements and at a price 500 times below its cadastral value, but also for the diversion of the resource that the illegally benefited company paid for those properties, through a parallel account opened by the former counselors in the name of the municipality to carry out this operation and the supervisory entities were never informed.
The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor maintained that the money paid by the company was deposited in a mirror account of the municipality, to later be transferred to an individual who had no relationship with the City Council, this in order to benefit private interests, for more than three million of pesos.
Former mayor of Celestún Leonel Rosado Mena link to process
Due to the foregoing, the public servants involved were linked to proceedings for the crimes of:
Illegal Use of Attributions and Powers Aggravated and Committed in a Gang and ECULADO embezzlement, the first for the illegal alienation of the land and the second for having diverted the resource that was paid for the operation, favoring both cases to other people, since the public servants had them at their disposal as a result of their assignment and they had to safeguard the patrimony of the municipality.
For these actions they were subjected to precautionary measures, including the prohibition to leave the State, the surveillance of the State Center for Precautionary Measures before which they must go to sign on a monthly basis.
In addition, the precautionary embargo that was locked regarding the planking involved will be added, and 3 months have been established for the closure of the complementary investigation in order to determine if the defendants will go to trial, where they could face sentences of up to 12 years in prison for the illegal use of powers and up to 14 years in prison for the crime of embezzlement.
Source: Diario de Yucatan
