Mexican drug traffickers set up a drug import company in Chile legally

A drug shipment destined for Chilean soil and intercepted in Mexico almost a year ago was a key piece of the investigation that detected Mexstone, a company created in Chile by Mexican drug traffickers that employed a customs agent, lawyers, and national transporters.

In addition, it became evident that the company that pretended to bring decorative stones had already managed at least one shipment of drugs to the port of San Antonio in the Valparaiso region.

MEXSTONE: THE COMPANY CREATED BY MEXICAN DRUG TRAFFICKERS

A few days ago, the Centro de Investigación Periodística (Ciper Chile) published an investigation that revealed how Mextone, a company created in Chile from Mexico and related to drug trafficking, operated.

According to the site, in August 2021, the Mexican Ministry of the Navy detained a shipment of more than 1,700 kilos of marijuana destined for Valparaiso, which came inside pallets with decorative stones.

The company importing this material into Chile was Mexstone, which was incorporated in Santiago in December 2020 by Chilean lawyers Francisco Duque Motta and Ignacio Méndez Letelier.

The professionals created what would be a ghost company in a legal way, in the representation of the Mexican citizen Leonardo Figueroa Gómez, whom they never met in person.

It should be noted that the duo of lawyers assured that they received about US$3,100 for the service, divided into three payments. These payments came from phantom companies incorporated in Mexico, according to Ciper Chile.

PREVIOUS DRUG SHIPMENT FROM MEXICO

Three months before the marijuana seizure, Mexstone was also listed as the company that received a previous drug shipment from Mexico. Like the lawyers, on that occasion, more people were involved, unaware of the narco link in operation.

On that occasion, the Chilean customs agency Pollmann received the cargo in San Antonio. It was later stored by the Chilean company Seaport and transported by the Chilean company Truck y Compañía.

Finally, the shipment was abandoned in a warehouse (Ergo) in the commune of Pudahuel for ten months, until last March, when the Maritime Police, following the trail, found the “decorative stones” containing sealed drug containers.

According to the media, this was the way Mexstone operated to bring drugs into Chile.

But far from no longer existing, the company is still active, and its owner, Leonardo Figueroa Gómez, was contacted by the investigation but denied having any business in Chile.

But upon insistence and a copy of the notarial documents of Mexstone in our country, his response was: “Hahahaha,” and he blocked the communication.

With information from BBCL