Humberto Moreira, former leader of Mexico's ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), and erstwhile ally of current president, Enrique Pena Nieto, was arrested on arrival at Spain's Madrid airport on Friday. He will be held as authorities investigate alleged corruption charges related to financial crimes.
The arrest was ordered by Spain's National Court on suspicion of money laundering, embezzlement, bribery and criminal association, according to Vice. The court's statement said that Moreira held "at least three bank accounts under his name in Spain," which had "received money transfers and cash payments" amounting to more than €200,000 (EUR) while living in Barcelona, the Associated Press explained on Friday.
In the statement, Judge José de la Mata said that intercepted conversations involving Moreira reveal that his explanations that the money came from routine operations of two Mexican companies he owns, Unipolares and Espectacular del Norte y Negocios, were inadequate, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Moreira served as Coahuila's governor from 2005 until 2011. In 2012, before ending his term, he resigned as leader of the Institutional Revolutionary Party when it was revealed that the states' debt had risen from $27 million to $3 billion under his watch, according to the Associated Press. In 2014, Moreira was accused of money laundering and embezzlement in a U.S. court following an investigation conducted by two journalists.
While Moreira has denied the accusations, in 2014, his former finance secretary pleaded guilty in Texas to money laundering, and Jorge Torres López, who replaced Moreira as interim governor, is also wanted in the U.S. on suspicion of embezzlement, Vice explains.
Moreira has been living in Barcelona since the death of his son, José Eduardo, in 2012. He has claimed that his son's death was ordered by Mexico's violent Zetas drug cartel, as the Wall Street Journal explains.
The court says that Moreira has three days to appeal its ruling, as the Latin Correspondent reports. He could face up to six years in prison.
