Just one year ago, in December 2024, Jacobo Reyes León and Jorge Albertes Ponce were happy. Work was easy. The first oversaw a major diesel smuggling operation across the southern border of Mexico, from Guatemala. The second managed some contracts in the Cuajimalpa Mayor’s Office in the capital, and controlled a series of property invasions in the capital area. The two talked often. Alberts also ran several security companies and oiled machines to obtain weapons, licenses, and carry permits. Reyes often asked him for weapons or men, although it sometimes happened the other way around. They felt powerful. On one of those days, in a phone conversation, Reyes even said that whoever was “bringing the eggs” was now him. He wanted to say if anyone was responsible, it was himself.
Things got better for both of them. Now accused of organized crime, part of a network linked to Miss Universe owner Raul Rocha Cantú, Reyes and Alberts managed to shut down several businesses before the end of the year. On December 17, the second told the first that the Cuajimalpa mayor’s office, under the control of Carlos Orfanianos, of the PRI-PAN-PRD coalition, had awarded him “fumigation” contracts. Alberts added that they will also offer them “cleaning, security and that they see what they can do for work.” “They are almost the owners of Cuajimalpa,” Reyes replied. The month will get better when, four days later, Reyes is able to secure a franchise from Segurimex, a security company, which will be added to the couple’s portfolio.
The aspect of the plot that concerned companies in this sector ran parallel to the main, and perhaps also more profitable, aspect that focused on Huachicul. In addition to Segurimex, which was in Reyes’ hands, Alberts controlled Servicios Terrestres de Seguridad Privada SA DE CV (SETER), Servicios Especializados deInvestigative y Custodia, SA de CV, Servicios Integrales Valbon SA DE CV and Dinámica Seguridad Privada Consultores SA DE CV. This group of brands worked as a group and hid an arms smuggling scheme. The business group had relationships with other businessmen in the union, and with a group of people who helped them obtain weapons permits and licenses. According to conversations collected in the investigation, seen by El Pais, this group had the ability to open doors in various state agencies, especially the Ministry of Defense, which is responsible for everything related to firearms in the country.
What happens at these companies, which Alberts runs, shines a light on a once obscure industry. For years, federal and state agencies have contracted with companies in this sector, whose activity has been difficult to track. This is the case of Cosaym, for example, who during the years of Enrique Peña Nieto’s presidency (2012-2018) obtained contracts with various agencies worth more than 1,000 million pesos, and that was always in doubt. In one such case, for example, the defunct Federal Police asked its agencies to look after some of its headquarters for three months, a job for which they were paid 801 million pesos. In a report on that contract, the federation’s supreme audit body concluded that the federal police “did not demonstrate the provision of the service for which the 801 million pesos were paid.”
On the other hand, government officials with questionable records have also used security companies to do their jobs. Without going any further, Hernán Bermúdez himself, also known as Commander H, Minister of Security of Tabasco from 2018 to 2024, now imprisoned for leading a criminal organization, in parallel with his police activity, fits into this scheme. Years before assuming the position of secretary, Bermudez, who came to this position at the hands of the current Morena leader in the Senate, Adan Augusto Lopez, created five security companies that obtained multi-million-dollar contracts with public agencies, especially with the ISSTE delegation, in that state.
The security companies in the Miss Universe case show the action scenes, in this case the allegedly dark and illegal part. In transcribed calls into the investigation, from the end of 2024 and the beginning of 2025, Reyes and Alberts usually talked about weapons they had to pick up from one place or send to another; From the men they need for one company or another, from some suppliers who make the cartridges, from the fees they charge for gun rentals and licenses… Sometimes, too, one or another talks to third parties, who are part of the chain of trafficking in women, to discuss one or another aspect of the business. So, for example, Omar asked Reyes in January, “How much does he get on vacation there with you?” Reyes answers that transportation costs 11,000 pesos per month. Omar answers that it is expensive and Reis, a businessman, says that he can offer him “380, we have machine guns and short (weapons).”
Such calls are common. On January 9, an unidentified man called Alberts and asked him, “How much does six guns cost for an escort?” “The deposit for the gun is 23 varos each, the processing fee is 9,000 per gun and the monthly payment is 9,500,” Alberts answers. His interlocutor asks him what kind of weapons it is, and Alberts answers, “Glocks, Ciscas, Beretta, Tanfoglio, Mexica, and Mendoza.” Eight days later, another man called Alberts and told him he had “Juarez’s weapons on hold.” Alberts answers, “The matter is urgent,” and the other confirms that “It is also urgent that this be crowned next week.”
The part of the chain that negotiates licenses etc. with the authorities is also reflected in the group’s conversations. On January 21, an unidentified person left “a meeting with the Ministry of Defense to resolve some issues regarding weapons licenses. This person told Alberts over the phone that yes they would help them. Alberts asked him to tell them that at 3:00 p.m., he would get fair (money) because it would go to the lawyers, and that at 4:00 p.m., he would send it to Basurto,” his bodyguard. The person tells him yes, “and you have to be prepared because later you have to pay the fine and their fine,” referring to a possible bribe. Alberts asks how long it will take until the problem is resolved. The other person answers that it’s eight to 15 days, “until he gets good on his unemployment benefits.” “Yes, let them fire weapons at us again,” Alberts concludes.
One important person to the plot in this aspect is “Captain Julian Curtis”, sometimes called just Cappy, or Cappy Julian. One day in January, for example, Reyes and Alberts talked about an arms shipment that should arrive from Tijuana. Alberts says that “16 weapons arrived tonight.” Reyes told him nothing about it, but replied that “Captain Julian will give him two weapons, if he gets help from Valvon or Setter.” Using cuip, Reyes points to a unique permanent identification code, a number assigned by the National Registry of Public Safety Officers. Valvon and Seter are two conspirators. Alberts asks who they are, and Reyes says, “They’re his friend who has a clothing store there in Pachuca.”
The two leaders of the conspiracy previously commented, in December, that a businessman from the syndicate, who was mentioned dozens of times in the investigation, but has not yet been charged, and Captain Julian “are the ones selling weapons.” In another call from December, Kabi walked Alberts through how to open more doors at the Defense Department: “Normally, in December, SEDENA employees send gifts from all their clients, and they use them to build networks.” Everything that is said is said with absolute calm, based on the logic suggested by Reyes himself: whoever brings the eggs now is him. Sometimes it’s surprising how much information they say without any problem over the phone.
Although the situation always seems to be under control, they sometimes show some fear that the situation might get out of control, or about the consequences of selling certain weapons or licenses. On Three Kings Day 2024, Reyes called Alberts and asked him if he knew “that the Pakistani is bringing in pure weapons from the Gulf Cartel.” The other doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Reyes gets angry: “You set it up! (…) They’re the ones with Cape,” and tells him to search the Internet for “CAPE 25 CARTEL DEL GOLFO.” The problem appears to be that a collaborator, named Loco, who manufactures R-15 rifle cartridges, is concerned that this batch of weapons might be confiscated. “They all got them on their asses over there, wow,” Reyes told Alberts of the seizures from this group in Tamaulipas. “They went through a tremendous amount, wow,” Reyes continues. Alberts begins to understand. “But, who is Seter or Siza?” He wonders whether the weapons originated from one of its companies or another. Reyes confirms that he is from Setre.
There is also disturbing information about El Loco. In a conversation that took place in December between Reyes and one of his subordinates, especially regarding Operation Huachicul, Daniel Roldan, they talked about him. Reyes tells Roldan, “El Loco has this mother who makes chargers.” He adds that he “manufactures weapons” and that “he already has four manufacturing companies.” Roldan then asked Reyes “if he gave him a way to get the order about the bullets and chargers, so he could talk to Sedina tomorrow.” Reyes says yes, and that he actually “owns the machines, and he says he was making about 1,000, 1,500 R-15 chargers a week.”