In January 2024, Vice Admiral Manuel Roberto Farías Laguna was dressed in his white gala uniform. “Are you protesting to perform, loyal and patriotically, the position of commander of the tenth second naval zone, as well as keep and keep the Mexican Political Constitution and the laws that emanate from it?”, They asked in Puerto Vallarta (Jalisco). “Yes, protest!” The sailor replied. “If I didn’t do so, the nation demands it.” This Saturday it has been announced that Farías Laguna, a name that sounded as a possible secretary of the Navy, has been arrested, with at least one more dozen of officials and entrepreneurs, for being part of a fuel smuggling network.
The arrest of Farías Laguna and his accomplices is derived from the case of the Challenge Procyan ship, which focused on fiscal huachicol. In mid -March this oil vessel docked in Puerto de Tampico in Tamaulipas from Texas (United States). His declared load was additives for lubricating oils, but when his wineries were inspected for inconsistencies in fiscal information, they discovered that they really transported diesel. After this finding, the authorities chatted a site near the city of Altamira, where they seized 10 million liters of diesel, 192 containers and 32 vehicles. At the end of June, the arrest of 11 people was announced in Saltillo, Coahuila, for having links with this confiscation, to which those of this Saturday would have to be added.
The only other public name is that of Francisco Javier Antonio Martínez, a former senior official of the administration of the National Port System (ASIPONA) Tampico. This had already been fired for participating in these corruption schemes in customs that pass fuels for merchandise of lower value so as not to pay taxes.
Farías Laguna’s arrest is big game. He and his brother Fernando, also Marino, are political nephews of Admiral José Rafael Ojeda Durán, head of the Secretariat of the Navy during the sexennium of Andrés Manuel López Obrador (2018-2024). As far as it is known, Farías Laguna is the largest rank official stopped so far from Claudia Sheinbaum’s sexennium.
Born in Ensenada, Baja California, his studies at the Military Naval School began in 1992. After his graduation he went up in the ladder of the Secretariat of the Navy: Subaltern Officer, Official of the position, Machine Officer, Second Commander, Commander of Interceptive Patrols … and had more political positions such as being a private secretary of Admiral Ojeda Durán. His rise in just two years of counter -limit to Vice Admiral, second step in importance in the Navy, raised suspicions among his companions, according to the Mexican press. In January 2025, he was relieved of the position of commander of the tenth second naval zone in Puerto Vallarta.
On paper, Farías Laguna’s curriculum is modelic, with a vertiginous ascent in the institution. Even, as he says The daywas considered as possible successor of his uncle, Admiral Ojeda Durán. But Chueco’s fame was chasing him and his brother for years, with several accusations in the press for leading a network of corruption and influence peddling within the Secretariat of the Navy. In the column The spoiled nephews of the Navythe journalist Carlos Loret de Mola said that sources from the Secretariat denounced that the two brothers were “those in charge of making decisions about the exercise of the budget”, and also put hand “in the promotions, promotions, aggregates and commissions.”
According to their information, they served the direct awards of contracts to friendly companies for all types of services of the institution, including those related to the Industrial Corridor of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. They were also accused, at the end of 2024, of having placed two captains at the Mexico City airport and, from there, repeating the scheme of awarding the projects to nearby contractors.
Farías Laguna is a military with the chest full of medals. According to a small biography published by the Secretariat of the Navy, it has the perseverance decorations from Sixth to Second Class, A decoration for special merit, the Legion of Honor, the Saber of Command, “as well as various honorary mentions, for having demonstrated care and effectiveness in the acts to contribute and improve the security coordination in the regions of the national territory.” You can now add a new distinction: to be the most rank officer arrested during the administration of Sheinbaum.
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