Arturo Millet Rearrested in Yucatan, Extradited to Nuevo Leon Over $300 Million Fraud

Mérida, Yucatán — Arturo Millet Reyes, a businessman accused of multiple multimillion-dollar frauds, was rearrested in Mérida on Monday and transferred to Nuevo León, where he faces a new charge of defrauding a businessman of more than 300 million pesos (about $15 million).

According to the National Detention Registry, the arrest occurred at 10:20 a.m. on April 27 at kilometer 8.5 of Mérida’s Periférico ring road, near the Mare Maquinarias company. Officers from the Yucatán Public Security Department (SSP) carried out the operation and handed Millet over to Nuevo León authorities.

Millet was then flown to Monterrey, where an arrest warrant had been issued in connection with a fraud complaint filed by a businessman from the region. The case is being investigated under file number 2762/2024-UTM-MTY.

The arrest warrant had been kept under wraps, and the capture was not made public until days later. Sources indicate that legal proceedings in Nuevo León had been underway for some time, with previous attempts to execute the warrant failing.

Millet had been free under electronic monitoring but allegedly violated the terms by leaving Yucatán without authorization, which could lead to additional legal consequences.

He also has an outstanding sentence to pay approximately $2.8 million in restitution for a prior fraud conviction, which remains unpaid.

Long history of fraud and legal evasion

Millet’s legal troubles date back more than a decade. In 2011, he acknowledged a debt of $11 million, promising to pay by November 2014. Instead, the debt was restructured through a series of documents that investigators say were designed to dilute the original obligation. In 2015, the commitment became a promissory note for $15 million due in 2017, which was also never paid.

By 2019, Millet allegedly implemented a more complex strategy: in San Pedro Garza García, Nuevo León, he signed a “Convenio de Cesión de Derechos de Adeudo y Cuentas por Cobrar” (Assignment of Debt Rights and Accounts Receivable Agreement) intended to simulate the extinction of the debt. He then issued a new promissory note due in 2023, in what authorities describe as a systematic pattern of legal simulation to avoid payment.

This scheme led to the Nuevo León investigation and judicial file 684/2023, where the state prosecutor’s office charged him with aggravated fraud, alleging deliberate deception, document manipulation, and prolonged financial harm to the victim.

In Yucatán, Millet was arrested in November 2025 for failing to pay $2.8 million in restitution in a breach-of-trust case (file 150/2022). The arrest occurred as he tried to leave the state via the Mérida–Cancún highway.

He also faces other fraud allegations totaling more than 117 million pesos, and combined sentences require him to pay around 127 million pesos — amounts that remain unpaid.

Allegations of political protection and judicial manipulation

Millet has repeatedly evaded justice, often through legal maneuvers. In January 2026, magistrates of the First Collegiate Criminal and Civil Chamber of Yucatán revoked a rearrest warrant, allowing his release after he obtained a definitive suspension through an amparo (injunction) in case 150/2022-J3ES. The decision was widely criticized as a legal loophole that temporarily placed him beyond the reach of the courts.

Sources allege that his wife, Gabriela López Gómez, who has worked as an image consultant in political campaigns and currently has ties to the state government, may have helped delay or halt judicial proceedings against him.

Reports also point to the involvement of judges and magistrates who allegedly facilitated favorable rulings. Magistrate Mario Alberto Castro Alcocer and former magistrate Luis Mendoza Casanova are said to have operated to modify Millet’s legal situation, taking advantage of the absence of the presiding judge of the First Collegiate Trial Court. Judge Elsy Margarita Basto Uc reportedly intervened to try to change his pretrial detention measure.

Other judicial operators, including judges Rómulo Bonilla Castañeda and José Enrique Sáenz Dzul, are accused of allowing delays, omissions, and favorable resolutions over the years. In 2023, when his legal situation should have been tightened, he was allowed to remain free with minimal restrictions.

Millet’s name has also been linked to money laundering, organized crime, and the so-called real estate mafia, particularly in cases of land dispossession in Yucatán and Quintana Roo, including the controversial “In House” irregular settlement in Playa del Carmen.

With open cases in at least two states, debts exceeding hundreds of millions of pesos and dollars, and a repeated pattern of legal evasion, the Millet Reyes case has become emblematic of alleged impunity, where economic power, influence, and legal loopholes have kept him out of prison for years.