Gustavo Castillo
La Jornada Newspaper
Saturday, October 18, 2025, p. 5
Federal judge Salma Martínez Macías, based in Torreón, Coahuila, imposed preventive detention on lawyer Gerardo Covarrubias, accused of tax evasion of 160 million pesos in the 2019 financial year, and who has been identified as one of the main people involved in a fraud through illicit pensions that has affected the Institute of Security and Social Services of State Workers (Issste) for an amount of around 16 billion pesos.
During a hearing that lasted more than 10 hours, the defense – made up of six litigants – of Covarrubias Huízar requested a doubling of the deadline (from 72 to 144 hours) to determine whether he is linked to criminal proceedings for his alleged responsibility in the crime of tax evasion.
The lawyer was detained last Thursday while driving in a vehicle in Gómez Palacio, Durango, and was subsequently placed at the disposal of Judge Martínez Macías.
During the hearing held at the Federal Criminal Justice Center based in Torreón, Covarrubias heard the charges against him and his defense sought to prevent preventive detention.
Likewise, the cases in which he has been accused of leading litigation in which illegally and with the complicity of officials of the Board 42 of Conciliation and Arbitration and officials of the ISSSTE, pensions were granted with amounts that did not correspond to the rights of the beneficiaries, which generated million-dollar damages to the institute, continue to be resolved.
They link the person involved in the case of money laundering
In turn, the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime was linked to a process against a man who was identified as José R, an authorized signatory in the bank account of the company Novedades Nova, used to operate illicit resources of the financial company Black Wallstreet Capital, allegedly related to the Cali cartel.
José R, whose date of arrest was not announced, will be tried for his probable responsibility in the crimes of organized crime and operations with resources of illicit origin.
According to the information released by the authorities, the investigation against Black Wallstreet Capital began in July 2022, “due to the complaint filed by the Financial Intelligence Unit of the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit against José R and various legal entities.”
In this context, the institutions that make up the security cabinet and elements of the Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection, in coordination with the Attorney General’s Office of the Republic, detained the now accused in the Obrera neighborhood, Cuauhtémoc mayor’s office, in Mexico City.
During the hearing, a judge from the Federal Criminal Justice Center in the state of Mexico, residing in Almoloya de Juárez (Altiplano), decreed the binding and informal preventive detention against José R.
Last May, a control judge, also from Almoloya de Juárez, issued preventive detention to businessman Juan Carlos Minero Alonso, main shareholder of Black Wallstreet Capital.
