Nicolás Maduro’s attorney general, Tarek William Saab, reported that the mayor of the Freites municipality of Anzoátegui state, Daniel Haro Méndez, was arrested for allegedly being linked to a red gasoline smuggling.
As Saab explained in Press conference, Haro Méndez could be involved in a criminal group that sold gasoline to supply groups dedicated to illegal mining.
For this case, he said, 17 people have been apprehended, including Haro Méndez and the mayor of the Independencia municipality, Carlos Vidal, as well as senior prosecutors from Bolívar and Delta Amacuro states.
“Mayor Carlos Rafael Vidal Bolívar, taking advantage of his position, and in complicity with other people, including family members and owners of service stations, managed an organized crime scheme that worked in two phases,” the prosecutor said.
“The first phase took place at several service stations and consisted of offering users a one-time payment of 10 dollars, with which 30 liters of gasoline were supplied. However, the user’s fingerprint was used, through the Patria biometric system, to record a consumption of 120 liters. The remaining amount was diverted and stored in illegal collection centers,” he added.
The other phase occurred when the stored fuel was diverted to supply groups dedicated to illegal mining. The transfer was carried out in heavy-duty vehicles.
“In this phase, former Mayor Vidal, through an intermediary named Jonatan Martínez, established contact with members of the Superior Prosecutor’s Office of Bolívar, to whom he offered and paid the amount of $10,000 per month to avoid being prosecuted for these crimes,” he explained. .
The prosecutor stated that the investigations continue and stressed that another 27 arrest warrants have been requested.