Wealthy Mexican playboy arrested with notorious drug lord

When authorities in Mexico arrested drug lord Hector Beltran-Leyva on Wednesday at a popular seafood restaurant in the central city of San Miguel de Allende, they also detained another man eating with him — a well-known, young and handsome Mexican playboy.

Authorities have revealed the drug kingpin’s companion was Germán Goyeneche, the preppy son of one of the most famous and wealthy families in the state of Queretaro, in north-central Mexico.

The Attorney General’s office in Mexico identified Goyeneche as a “financial operator” for the Beltran-Leyva cartel. Goyeneche was carrying an illegal firearm when he was arrested, authorities said.

Some in Queretaro have raised questions about Goyeneche since he appeared as the visible head of an ambitious luxury real estate development in San Miguel de Allende, a business venture that some locals believed was owned by Beltran-Leyva.

Watch Goyeneche praise authorities and “foreign investors” for supporting the project:

Goyeneche reportedly has close ties with one of Queretaro’s main political parties: Partido Verde, which formed part of the coalition that brought President Enrique Peña Nieto to power. The party markets itself as the vanguard of the country’s environmental movement.

On his Twitter account, Goyeneche identifies himself as the head of the Citizen’s Parliament of Mexico for the state of Queretaro, a group seeking to bring residents and government officials together to discuss community issues. He also describes himself as an “ecologist” and “businessman.”

My sources tell me many Partido Verde party leaders and lawmakers are close friends with Goyeneche. Federal Congressman Ricardo Astudillo is believed to be among them.

Goyeneche (left) with Astudillo (middle) via Carlos Loret de Mola

Astudillo has insisted that Goyeneche is simply a party supporter. It took 11 months to build an operation to capture Beltran-Leyva. The arrest of both Beltran-Leyva and Goyeneche might be the beginning of a deeper investigation involving Mexico’s political parties, businessmen and drug cartels.

Carlos Loret de Mola is an award winning Mexican journalist and popular news anchor of Televisa’s “Primero Noticias.” He has served as a war correspondent in Afghanistan, Haiti, Egypt, Syria and Libya and writes for a number of news outlets on issues ranging from the drug war to international politics. Carlos has broken many influential stories about the operations that led to the capture of some of Mexico’s most wanted criminals. In 2001 he wrote the book “The Deal. Mexican economy trapped by drug trafficking.” He is a frustrated chef, runner and guitar troubadour… but he keeps trying.