Mexican National, Wanted by Interpol, is Detained and Released in Belize

Gonzalo Herrera Castilla

There’s been a major arrest in Belize of a Mexican national wanted by Interpol. News reports from Mexico say that a former government employee, Gonzalo Herrera Castilla has been detained in Belize. Herrera Castilla worked during the tenure of former Quintana Roo governor, Roberto Borge Angula and had been on the lam for some time until his capture. When he was detained by the Belize Coast Guard on Saturday, February sixteenth, he was found with fourteen thousand two hundred and eighty U.S. dollars, an undisclosed amount of Belizean currency and Guatemalan quetzals. Herrera Castilla was on unregistered boat in the waters near San Pedro.  He was then handed over to the Financial Intelligence Unit and charged for money laundering and the financing of terrorism as well as illegal entry. Herrera Castilla was arraigned in the San Pedro Magistrate’s Court earlier this week, but the charges were struck out by the magistrate, who ordered that the F.I.U. to return the money confiscated. He was released immediately and is still in San Pedro as further investigation is being conducted. News Five has confirmed that the police is in contact with Interpol because there is a warrant for his arrest from Mexican authorities.  Now, the Mexican national applied for Belizean citizenship in 2017, but his status is still pending. In that same year, however, he was charged for the abuse of power following the mismanagement of funds; he was given bail of fifty-three million pesos and has been wanted by Mexican authorities since then.  Herrera Castilla was the secretary of the office of the use of public funds.  He was being sought as part of a company that carried out numerous contracts for plane rentals.