A Mexican mayor allegedly used ammonium sulfate to defraud more than 3.5 million peso

Héctor Lagunes, the chairman of the San Rafael City Council, orchestrated a scheme involving Ammonium Sulfate billing that resulted in embezzlement exceeding 3.5 million pesos. This misappropriation of funds has not only outraged certain municipal officials but has also come to light through leaked documents providing evidence of the crime committed.

Under the leadership of Héctor Lagunes, a member of the PRD party, the San Rafael City Council engaged in fiscal manipulation and defrauded both the municipal treasury and agricultural producers. These producers paid an additional amount for a fertilizer that was supposedly subsidized by the Municipal Government.

Information obtained from the San Rafael Municipal Treasury, as revealed by leaked invoices, indicates that the embezzlement was carried out through a process of fiscal triangulation. The City Council purchased the fertilizer from an individual at a price of 350 pesos per package, while the manufacturing company (Fertigolfo) sold it at a wholesale price of 248 pesos per package. Consequently, there was a premium of 102 pesos per package imposed on the producers. However, Lagunes’ greed went even further.

Exploiting the situation, Héctor Lagunes not only misappropriated funds from the municipal treasury through fiscal triangulation but also deceived the agricultural producers of San Rafael. He announced that the fertilizer would be subsidized by 40% of its total cost, charging each producer a fee of 265 pesos per package. As a result, each producer paid a premium of at least 15 pesos per package, considering that the wholesale cost was 250 pesos.

To cover up the traces of this embezzlement, Lagunes instructed his subordinates to include packages for “beneficiary” producers, providing them with documentation that falsely endorsed them as farmers. In this manner, the City Council distributed 200 packages in each of these fraudulent packages, which were acquired through fiscal triangulation and intended to evade audits conducted by the Supreme Audit body.

According to the information posted on the official Facebook page of the San Rafael City Council, 14 trailers, each containing 700 packages, were unloaded, resulting in a total of 9,800 packages of fertilizer. As detailed, the “support” involved charging 265 pesos per package, with the mayor claiming to cover 40% of the total cost. However, the actual cost per package was 250 pesos, which means the producers were deceived and an extra 15 pesos was collected. Furthermore, each package was indirectly paid for at a price of 350 pesos to an individual or “prestanames” by the City Council.

Consequently, each package had a total cost of 615 pesos, with 365 pesos going directly into Héctor Lagunes’ pockets. Considering that the City Council sold 9,800 packages, the amount stolen reached 3,577,000 pesos.