LatinNews Daily Report - 20 December 2012

CRIME | Fake journalists convicted. On 19 December a Nicaraguan judge found that 18 Mexicans who posed as journalists and were arrested at the Nicaragua/ Costa Rica border in August guilty of money laundering, organised crime and drug trafficking. The judge set 18 January as the date for their sentencing. At the time of their arrest, US$9.2m in cash was seized from the group’s six vehicles, which bore the logo of Mexican broadcaster, Televisa, which vehemently denies having any links with the suspects. The case attracted particular attention in terms of revealing links between organised crime and public bodies in Nicaragua – in this case the border authorities – given reports that the group had crossed the border multiple times since 2006. These concerns also followed the high profile trial of Henry Fariñas, a Nicaraguan concert promoter and nightclub owner linked to ‘El Palidejo’ (Alejandro Jiménez González), a Costa Rican believed to head one of the biggest drug trafficking rings in Central America.

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