After four years on the run from Mexican authorities, businessman Víctor Manuel Álvarez Puga, husband of former Mexican TV host Inés Gómez Mont, has been held for a month in a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center located south of Miami.
According to public records from the United States government, Álvarez was arrested on September 24 as a result of his irregular immigration status and not directly for the crimes that kept him a fugitive in Mexico. Since September 2021, there has been an arrest warrant in Mexico against him and Gómez Mont for alleged money laundering, organized crime, and embezzlement of public funds.
Details of the arrest
According to court documents reported by the Mexican newspaper La Jornada , Álvarez Puga entered the United States on July 10, 2021, without undergoing immigration inspection, and in July 2022, he requested political asylum, a process still pending.
The detention center is the Krome North SPC in Miami-Dade, where he remains in ICE custody while his immigration status is resolved.
A federal judge, Cecilia M. Altonaga, ruled that he should not be held in mandatory detention without bail assessment, as provided for in U.S. immigration law.
The charges against them stem from alleged involvement in a network that allegedly used "ghost" companies to bill for services that were never performed, through contracts with the Ministry of the Interior and the federal prison system during the administration of Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong. They are accused of embezzling approximately $163 million at today's exchange rate.
According to Forbes Mexico , the Attorney General's Office (FGR) has open investigations into money laundering, organized crime, and embezzlement.
Gómez Mont's whereabouts remain a mystery. There is no public record of her being detained or in the United States. Some reports suggest she could be in Dubai, although none have been officially confirmed. The whereabouts of the five children who lived with them—three of her children and the two they had together—are also unknown.
