Wealthy Mexican ex-mayor investigated for drug ties

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“Mexican magnate Jorge Hank Rhon, an eccentric ex mayor of Tijuana who was arrested after weapons were found in his home, is being investigated for possible links to drug cartels,” a prosecutor said.

“It is part of what must be investigated,” Attorney general Marisela Morales told reporters at a briefing, referring to allegations Hank Rhon could have ties to the Tijuana cartel. “He was arrested on Saturday for illegal possession of weapons”, Mexican officials said after troops raided his home and seized 40 rifles, 48 handguns ammunition and a grenade.

Scion of one of Mexico’s wealthiest families, Hank Rhon runs horse racing and gambling operations in Tijuana, a border city known as a key drug smuggling route to the United States. He is the son of the late Carlos Hank Gonzalez, who was one of the most influential figures in PRI, the former leftist populist party that dominated Mexican politics for decades.

The former mayor, whom press freedom organisations have sought to link to the murders of two journalists in 1988 and 2003, was questioned Saturday by federal prosecutors. Hank Rhon was Tijuana’s mayor from 2004 to 2007, and afterward ran for governor of the state of Baja California but was defeated by the candidate from the ruling conservative National Action Party. The former mayor also was detained in 1995, for alleged trafficking in the skins of endangered animals, but was acquitted.