Thompson Navarro placed under house arrest in Ensenada
Original reporting: ZETA Tijuana
What happened
ZETA Tijuana reports that Ricardo Thompson Navarro left Altiplano prison and was transferred to a private residence in Ensenada while facing an organized-crime and alleged fiscal-fuel case.
Reporting and context
Ricardo Thompson Navarro is under house arrest at a private residence in Ensenada after leaving Federal Social Readaptation Center No. 1, known as Altiplano, in Almoloya de Juárez. ZETA Tijuana reported that he arrived in Baja California at 12:35 a.m. on Oct. 9 and was transferred by air under the responsibility of Mexico’s Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection.
According to ZETA Tijuana, Thompson Navarro is facing a case involving alleged organized crime and alleged fiscal fuel theft alongside former Baja California Gov. Ernesto Ruffo Appel and José Merino Valdés Cuervo. The report said Thompson Navarro is being held at a seaside residential development in the El Sauzal area of Ensenada, where a National Guard patrol was observed outside the property. ZETA said an attempt to interview him was declined through an intercom linked to a security camera.
The three men were arrested in Ensenada on July 16, while Thompson Navarro’s father, Ricardo Thompson Ramírez, is described as a fugitive. The Federal Attorney General’s Office is investigating alleged illegal fuel imports using rail tank cars and altered customs documents through Ingemar S.A. de C.V., the report said. The source also recounts the family’s claim that their stake in the company was reduced to less than 1.7 percent after a 2018 shareholders’ meeting.