Arturo Millet Arrested in Yucatán Fraud Case

Mérida, Yucatán — Arturo Millet Reyes, a businessman widely accused of million-dollar debts and fraud and linked to high-level politicians who provide him protection, was detained at 7 p.m. on Friday night while attempting to escape on the Mérida–Cancún highway, aboard an Infiniti SUV, accompanied by one of his partners.

The capture occurred around 7 p.m., in compliance with an arrest warrant issued by the Third Sentencing Enforcement Court, stemming from case file 150/2022, after Millet failed to pay $2.8 million corresponding to reparations for damages in a case of aggravated breach of trust.

According to sources close to the process, this file had been delayed for years due to the businessman’s political connections. Millet Reyes’s wife, Gabriela López, has worked as an advisor in campaigns for Ivonne Ortega Pacheco and is currently an image and communication advisor for Governor Joaquín Díaz Mena, which allegedly allowed the case to remain stalled.

Despite these factors, the Sentencing Judge, Silvia Carolina Estrada Gamboa, determined that there was no more legal leeway: Millet did not pay, did not comply, and the amount owed—$2.8 million, reported by eight affected parties—had to be demanded as per the Penal Execution Law.

After his capture, Arturo Millet was transferred to be made available to the Third Sentencing Court, which will determine the corresponding measures while the Fiscal Agency initiates the procedure for forced collection of the debt.

What is a fact is that this time the influences were not enough, and the businessman finally ended up in the hands of justice.

Arturo Millet Reyes is considered one of the major mafia figures in Yucatán, linked to the Sinaloa Cartel.

He is associated with money laundering and the real estate mafia through land dispossession in Yucatán and Quintana Roo.

To date, he has two sentences from two of these lawsuits, whose judges sentenced him to pay 127 million pesos; however, the judicial mandates could not be executed because he was considered untraceable by the authorities.

Nevertheless, he has the protection of Morena, because his wife, Gabriela López Gómez, is the political advisor and strategist for Governor Joaquín Díaz Mena.