Frontera NorteSur July -August  2004

Fourteen properties that allegedly belong to Jesús José Solís Silva, the former attorney general of the state of Chihuahua, or members of his family have been searched in an operation that combines federal law enforcement and the Mexican army, according to a an August 21, 2004 story in the Chihuahua City newspaper El Heraldo de Chihuahua. 

Unnamed sources involved in the investigation told El Heraldo that Solís Silva had been required to testify on the evening of Friday, August 20, 2004 in front of investigators in relation to their operation against drug traffickers.  However, at a later point, El Heraldo received news that Solís Silva had been detained or even taken to Mexico City. 

High-level drug traffickers are typically detained and flown to Mexico City where they are transferred to maximum security facilities.  Mexico City is where the offices of the federal attorney general are located.

The newspaper also noted that Jesús José Solís Silva resigned from the attorney general’s office (Procuraduría General de Justicia en el Estado, PGJE) in early March 2004 after being accused of protecting drug traffickers. 

Solís Silva’s resignation was proceeded by the discovery that 17 state police officers had allegedly participated in the murder of 12 people between 2003 and 2004 in Ciudad Juárez while they were acting on behalf of the Juárez drug cartel. 

Most of the 14 properties that were searched are in the name of Solís Silva’s uncle, José de Jesús Silva Gándara, and his nephew, Ramón Solís, according to El Heraldo.  The properties are spread throughout the border states of Chihuahua, Coahuila and Tamaulipas and remained under the control of the Mexican army until Saturday, August 21.  A number of the properties are in or are near Camargo, a city about 60 miles southeast of Chihuahua City.

Mayor of Camargo is Part of Solís Family

The mayor of Camargo, Genaro Solís González, a cousin of Jesús José Solís Silva, said that he has nothing to do with drug trafficking or any other sort of crime. 

El Heraldo noted in its August 20 article that the mayor’s home appeared to be under the watch of some of the military forces deployed to Camargo. 

The mayor denies that his home is being watched and that the military is actually stationed outside a home belonging to another member of the Solís family. 

Solís González complained to El Heraldo that when he asked the head of the military unit nearest his house why there were military units on his street, the official said he could not give him any information.  He was then told to speak with the 42^nd Military Zone in Parral.  Despite a full day of trying Solís González said that he was unable to speak with the general in charge of the zone.

Genaro Solís González is a member of the Partido Acción Nacional, PAN, while his cousin Jesús José Solís Silva worked for Governor Martínez who is a member of Chihuahua’s other major political party, the PRI (Partido Revolucionario Institucional). 

Solís González also complained that just because of his last name people associate him with his cousin Solís Silva.  The mayor said he has no idea if Solís Silva has ties to drug trafficking.  He went on to say that anyone could have a brother dedicated to “unpleasant things” and that the Solís family is quite extensive in Camargo.

Two Different Versions about the Whereabouts of Solís Silva

The Ciudad Juárez newspaper El Diario reported a slightly different version of events on August 22, 2004.  Its article stated that Solís Silva was questioned by the federal attorney general’s office, the PGR, on the night of Thursday, August 19, at its Cd. Juárez headquarters.  The newspaper also noted that Solís Silva was questioned about his links to nephew Ramón Solís Núnez.  Sources inside the PGR told El Diario that Ramón Solís Núnez is allegedly linked to the Juárez drug cartel and is the target of the investigation.

However, in the same story in which it indicated that Solís Silva was questioned in Cd. Juárez, Solís Silva’s cousin Genaro Solís González, the mayor of Camargo, is quoted as saying that he ran into Solís Silva when he, Solís González, went to a military office in Camargo to find if or why he was under investigation. 

“From what he told me and I understood,” Solís González said about his cousin Solís Silva, “he was at his ranch, El Espejo, and they went for him there or called him to talk or surely to investigate, and that’s how I learned that he was on his way out [of the Camargo army office].  He was only waiting for an inspection of the weapons carried by the men that regularly accompany him but they are weapons from the attorney general’s office."

According to El Diario, El Espejo ranch is 90 kilometers west of the city of Camargo. 

It is typical that the men’s weapons would have been inspected since some weapons in Mexico are only allowed to be carried for official purposes. 

Link to 2003 Anti-drug Operation Nearly Disrupted by Solís’ Office in December

On December 12, 2003, El Heraldo de Chihuahua reported that two men were detained in Chihuahua City where they were allegedly tapping phone lines.  One of the men, Alejandro González Montiel, is said to have identified himself as an agent with Mexico's Agencia Federal de Investigaciones (Federal Investigations Agency, AFI).  On the list of phone lines to monitor was the number of Jesús José Solís Silva who was then the attorney general of Chihuahua.

According to Vicente González of the Chihuahua state police, agents showed up at a house in Chihuahua City with an arrest warrant for a person that allegedly lived in the house.  The person was not at the house but the agents looked in and saw a computer hooked up to loudspeakers. 

After a short inspection, a telephone specialist was called in and he discovered that the computer was connected via an illegal line to the phone system. 

González was then detained along with Marco Antonio Fuentes Arenas who said that he was an administrative coordinator but he did not mention for whom he worked.

Eventually, state police officials determined that the computer in the house could be used to monitor calls anywhere in the state or country. 

At an improvised press conference in the house, it was explained that the system was connected to a line from a "conector general" (general connector) to the phone system.  There were a number of recording devices found in the house. From these, conversations could be stored on a computer and then sent to anywhere. 

Also found in the house were three cell phones used to intercept signals, known as "receivers," and three functioning cell phones and two laptops among other items. 

One apparent contradiction between the police story and the newspaper account is that El Heraldo reports that the downstairs of the house was totally empty of furniture and held just junk food wrappers.  The stairs to go to the second floor are near the front door.  At the back of the second floor, in what would typically be a bedroom, was all the phone tapping equipment--which El Heraldo reported that the police say they saw from the front door of the house. 

In the weeks after the arrests of González and Fuentes, it gradually became known that the state police and attorney general’s office had nearly upset a major drug operation known as Toro.

As per El Diario’s August 22, 2004 article the operation still lead to the arrest of one of its primary targets: a Colombian known as José Fernando Arias Pulgarín or José Antonio Arias Salas, the head of the organization that supplied cocaine to the Juárez cartel.  Arias was arrested on December 20, 2003 in Mexico City along with alleged accomplices. 

According to El Diario the Chihuahua part of Toro was aimed directly at investigating Solís Silva’s nephew, Ramón Solís Núnez.

Not long after their arrest both González and Fuentes were freed by a state judge who said that there was not sufficient evidence of a crime having occurred to hold the men.

Now, El Diario writes that the federal government’s anti-organized crime division, SIEDO, is said to have an order to find and question Solís Núnez who SIEDO ties to the Colombian cocaine suppliers of the Juárez cartel. 

El Diario also noted that police reports state that Ramón Solís Núnez was nearly arrested a few months ago in Texas with thousands of dollars in cash.  However, Solís Núnez allegedly denied that the money was his and was freed and returned to Mexico where he is being search for in Chihuahua. 

Although no further details of the Texas incident were provided perhaps Solís Núnez had failed to report having more than $10,000 in cash with him while entering or leaving the country which would have broken US customs law.  Frontera NorteSur has not been able to ascertain if officially abandoning such an amount of money would result in someone being set free. 

Governor Martínez and Chihuahua Authorities Unaware of Investigation

Patricio Martínez, the governor of Chihuahua, told El Diario that he was not informed by the federal government of the current investigation into the Solís family.  He said the operation was strictly being carried out at the federal level and that he is satisfied with the investigation and that it is being carried out properly. 

The spokesperson for the state attorney general’s office, the PGJE, René Medrano Carrasco, said that his office was not taking a position on the investigation.  He reiterated that the PGJE had not been informed of the operation before it took place. 

Story Dropped?

While internet versions of Chihuahua’s major newspapers had lengthy articles about the property searches and the investigation into members of the Solís family on August 20 through August 22, by August 23 none of them had a follow up article.  This is surprising given that El Heraldo has stated that the immediate past attorney general of the state, Solís Silvis, is said to have perhaps been arrested and even taken to Mexico City.  At this point his legal status and whereabouts have not been clarified or made known by the press.

Sources:
Heraldo de Chihuahua (Chihuahua City), August 20 and 21, 2004. 
El Diario (Ciudad Juárez), August 22, 2004.  Article by A. Loyola, G. Acevedo and S. Macías.