Víctor Manuel Álvarez Puga: Charges and ICE Custody

Mexico City — Television host Inés Gómez Mont was arrested Friday in Florida, five years after she went on the run from Mexican prosecutors who accuse her of organized crime, embezzlement and handling funds of illicit origin.

Mexico’s Federal Prosecutor’s Office (FGR) confirmed the arrest and said an arrest warrant remains active against her in Mexico on suspicion of the equivalent of tax fraud.

The case has also put a spotlight back on her husband, lawyer and businessman Víctor Manuel Álvarez Puga, who has been in US immigration custody in Miami since September 2025 and is wanted in Mexico over a multimillion-peso public funds case.

Who is Víctor Manuel Álvarez Puga?

Mexican authorities link Álvarez Puga to the diversion of large sums of public money and to the creation of shell companies used to launder money.

He kept a low public profile, but that did not keep him out of custody: he is being held at the Krome North Service Processing Center in Miami-Dade County, Florida.

Before his legal troubles, Álvarez Puga worked with his brother Alejandro to found Álvarez Puga y Asociados, a law and accounting firm specializing in tax matters that grew to operate in more than 45 cities across Mexico.

The firm’s reach brought him into contact with Mexican politicians, including Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong during his tenure as interior secretary. Its client list included franchise operators for the fast-food chains Subway and Wendy’s.

According to The New York Times, Víctor and Alejandro both worked in a family food business before launching the firm.

Why is he in US custody?

Álvarez Puga was taken into custody on Sept. 24, 2025, after US authorities reviewed his immigration status and determined he was in the country illegally.

Court records show he entered the United States on Jan. 14, 2021, on a visa that expired on July 13 of that year. He left for the Bahamas on July 9 and returned a day later by sea, without boarding a flight scheduled for July 21.

He applied for asylum in 2022, and that request remains unresolved. He has stayed at the Krome North facility in Miami-Dade County since his arrest.

Mexican authorities have requested his extradition, but the process has been stalled since October of last year.

What charges does he face in Mexico?

Álvarez Puga faces an active criminal case in Mexico over several federal offenses.

In September 2021, the FGR obtained an arrest warrant against him for alleged involvement in organized crime, operations with resources of illicit origin and embezzlement of public funds.

According to official information, Álvarez Puga & Asociados was part of a network of companies that billed the federal government for services that were never provided during Osorio Chong’s time at the Interior Ministry. The alleged loss to the public treasury amounts to 2.95 billion pesos.

The FGR alleges the money was diverted through fraudulent contracts awarded to shell companies tied to the lawyer and his brother.