Almoloya de Juárez, Estado de México — A federal judge began a closed-door hearing Tuesday evening to determine whether former Baja California governor Ernesto Ruffo Appel and seven co-defendants will be formally charged with organized crime and fuel trafficking offenses.
District Judge Alejandra Ramírez de la Vega, presiding over Case 253/2026 at the Altiplano maximum-security prison’s justice center, started the proceedings at 6 p.m. local time. The hearing was declared private at the request of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, which argued that revealing the identities of other suspects still at large could compromise the investigation.
The hearing is being conducted via videoconference. Only the judge and court support staff were physically present in Courtroom 1, along with four defendants held at Altiplano. The prosecutor, defense attorneys, and the remaining three defendants participated remotely.
Ruffo Appel, who made history as Mexico’s first opposition governor when he took office in 1989, is accused of being a member of a network that smuggled fuel from the United States into Mexico through his company, Ingemar.
Prosecutors allege that Ruffo committed a double illegality in fuel imports: his company underreported the volume of fuel brought into the country via a railway transport firm, and it falsely declared the type of fuel imported to avoid paying the special tax on products and services, thereby defrauding the tax authorities.
Alongside Ruffo, the accused include Ricardo Thompson Navarro, José María de la Peña Ramos, and Guillermo de la Peña Rosales, shareholders of Internacional de Fundentes; Adriana Magali Bárcenas Guillén of Logística Ferroviaria Fargo; Armando Riestra Fernández, owner of Servicios Aduanales JR, who was arrested in January; and customs agents Juan Hermilo Chávez Rodríguez and Antonio Barrientos.
During Tuesday’s hearing, defense attorneys are presenting arguments and exculpatory evidence. The proceedings are expected to be lengthy, possibly exceeding the 30-hour initial hearing that began Friday and ended Sunday afternoon with only three short recesses.
Judge Ramírez de la Vega is expected to rule by Thursday morning at the latest on whether to bind Ruffo and his co-defendants over for trial or release them due to lack of evidence.
