Elements of the Navy and agents of the federal ministerial police of the FGR completed this Thursday an arrest warrant against Facundo Rosas Rosas, former commissioner of the Federal Police, for the "Fast and Furious" case.
After 2 in the afternoon, the detainee was transferred to the facilities of the Special Prosecutor for Organized Crime.
This morning, the Secretariat of Citizen Security of Mexico City arrested Facundo Rosas for running over and causing the death of a woman in the San Ángel neighborhood, of the Álvaro Obregón mayor's office.
Upon arrival at the site, personnel from the Security Secretariat interviewed Facundo Rosas, who said that when he was walking on Insurgentes Avenue he did not realize that a woman was at the point, so he ran over her.
According to investigations by the FGR's Specialized Prosecutor for Organized Crime (FEMDO), Facundo Rosas Rosas is likely responsible for having participated in an illegal scheme - implemented in collaboration with United States authorities - through which close to two thousand illegal firearms to Mexico, as part of a strategy that was called “Fast and Furious”.
Authorities with knowledge of the case confirmed to this outlet that Rosas Rosas was summoned to testify at the beginning of last year before the Public Ministry, as part of the investigation folder SEIDO/UEITA-SON/0000306/2020 initiated by the crimes of organized crime, violations of the federal law on firearms and explosives, among other serious crimes.
Read about it: Arrest warrants issued against "Chapo" and García Luna for Fast and Furious operation
After his statement and that of several other former officials, the Prosecutor's Office continued with the integration of said investigation and earlier this year obtained from a federal judge seven arrest warrants against those likely involved in these events. Three of them are already detained, although for other cases: Joaquín Guzmán Loera, former leader of the Pacific Cartel; Genaro García Luna, former Secretary of Federal Public Security; and Luis Cárdenas Palomino, former director of the Intelligence Division of the Federal Police.
The details of the investigation and the specific role that each of these former officials would have played have not yet been revealed by the Prosecutor's Office; however, the FEMDO considers that the then commanders of the Federal Public Security Secretariat (SSPF) were co-responsible for the omissions and negligence left by this operation, and that in fact it ended up increasing the firepower of criminal organizations that, at the same time, dessert, perpetrated various crimes with these weapons.
When these events occurred, Facundo Rosas was serving as General Commissioner of the then Federal Police attached to the SSPF. It was the position of highest hierarchy within the structure of said corporation and, hierarchically, the only superior of it was García Luna himself.
Rosas remained as the maximum chief of said security force until February 2012. He left this position after being appointed Undersecretary of Prevention and Citizen Participation of the same SSPF. He remained in that position until December 2012, the month in which the six-year term of then President Felipe Calderón ended, who is also under investigation for the "Fast and Furious" case.
It may interest you: Mexico asks the US for "all the information" about Fast and Furious, in the face of doubts about the operation
After leaving this federal dependency, Facundo Rosas Rosas served as Secretary of Public Security of Puebla during the administration of Governor Rafael Moreno Valle. For three years he remained in that position until, in 2015, he submitted his resignation after it was revealed that high-ranking police chiefs under his command were involved in an alleged protection network for criminal groups dedicated to hydrocarbon theft.
In August 2014, Political Animal published that Rosas was also implicated in a case of serious human rights violations registered in Chalchihuapan, Puebla, and in which police officers under his command violently suppressed a demonstration of ranchers, leaving the death of a minor.
Facundo Rosas Rosas did not really have an academic training related to the police. He graduated as an Agricultural Engineer from the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, and has a Master's degree in Administration from the Universidad del Valle de México. However, his closeness to García Luna – to whom he was considered one of the closest – allowed him to work in these security spheres.
