MEXICO CITY (AP) – General Eduardo León Trauwitz, who was responsible for the security of the state-owned company Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) in the previous government, has been arrested in Canada at the request of the Mexican attorney general’s office, who launched a two-year for his alleged involvement in fuel theft networks, authorities said on Friday.
The attorney general’s office said in a statement that Eduardo “L” had been detained by Canadian authorities to begin his extradition process. A federal official, who asked not to be identified because he is not authorized to testify, confirmed that the detainee is León Trauwitz, who was deputy director of strategic safeguard of Pemex during the six-year tenure of the former president Enrique Peña Nieto (2012-2018) and was responsible for the security of the country’s pipelines.
General León Trauwitz, who applied for a license from the military in 2010 to be Peña Nieto’s security chief when he was governor of the State of Mexico, the prosecution opened a process in 2019 for his probable responsibility as “the protector of huachicol (fuel theft) within Pemex,” the letter reads.
The attorney general’s office says it has been able to verify that the general, along with others, “concealed and protected huachicol in Pemex’s distribution networks.”
In recent years, in Mexico, the theft of hydrocarbons, in particular oil, has increased.
Since taking power in 2018, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has promoted the fight against the millionaire fuel theft business and has deployed thousands of troops to guard the pipelines.
Emilio Lozoya, a former director of the state-owned company, is also accused of corruption, money laundering and criminal conspiracy and receiving millions of dollars in bribes.
Lozoya had been granted parole after being extradited from Spain in 2020, but last month a judge lifted the measure and ordered him to be sentenced to prison.
As reported by the Federal Council of the Judiciary, the magistrate pronounced justified preventive detention when he examined the well-founded arguments of the prosecution that Lozoya had not complied with the requirements of collaboration with the justice system necessary to remain in custody. probation. The Financial Investigations Unit also added that there was a risk of flight.
Lozoya led Pemex from 2012 to 2016. After leaving office, he fled to Spain where he was arrested and extradited to Mexico in 2020.
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