By Ivan Castro
MANAGUA, Aug 25 (Reuters) – A Nicaraguan judge on Saturday
ordered the incarceration of 18 people, including a Mexican
policeman, who had posed as journalists while attempting to pass
through the Central American country last week with at least $7
million in cash.
The suspects will remain behind bars in “protective custody”
until a September 5 court date, when they will face money
laundering and other criminal charges lodged by the federal
prosecutors.
“I order that all of the accused before me be sent to
protective custody as a precautionary measure,” Judge Julio
Cesar Arias said on Saturday following a formal presentation of
charges.
The group was detained on Monday as it tried to cross from
the north into Nicaragua from neighboring Honduras with the cash
in six vehicles, Nicaragua’s national police commissioner Aminta
Granera said on Friday.
The chief prosecutor in the case, Ana Guido, told reporters
Saturday the investigation is ongoing and no determination had
been reached as to which, if any, criminal organization the
detainees might belong.
Nicaraguan authorities have yet to finish counting the
confiscated cash, nor have they confirmed the nationality of all
the suspects, although each carried Mexican documents when they
were arrested.
Several of the detainees, including the police officer, have
been confirmed as Mexican citizens.
Granera said Friday the group had posed as reporters from
Televisa, Mexico’s largest broadcaster, and that
police had found video cameras, audio equipment, microphones and
satellite phones in the vehicles.
Nicaraguan authorities determined on Thursday that the
detainees had no link to Televisa and were working with Interpol
to see whether they belonged to any criminal organizations.
Over the past decade, drug-running cartels have cultivated
Central American supply lines as Mexico’s government wages a
military offensive against the gangs throughout the country.
There have been more than 55,000 drug-related killings in
Mexico since President Felipe Calderon took office in 2006.
