A judge in the State of Mexico on Tuesday sentenced the former mayor of Amanalco, Maria Elena Martinez Robles, to 70 years in prison after finding her guilty of the aggravated homicide of trustee Miguel Angel Lara of The murder of La Cruz and his driver, committed in January 2023. According to a press release, the Attorney General's Office of the State of Mexico provided evidence proving that Martinez Robles directly ordered members of the La Familia Michoacana criminal organization to kill the municipal trustee. The investigations, stemming from "Operation Swarm," established that the former mayor, who took office in 2022, maintained a relationship with the criminal group. It was proven that she held meetings to coordinate how the municipal administration would work with the criminal cell, and that she even made monthly payments to its leaders using municipal funds. The motive for the crime was a political dispute over control of the city council, according to the website Reportete Idigo. Investigations revealed that Martinez Robles had a phone call with a leader of La Familia Michoacana in which she requested that the city councilor be “removed from the way” so that she could “work properly.” On January 25, 2023, under her orders, the victims were sent to a meeting in the municipality of Zacazonapan, a high-risk area dominated by this criminal group, where they were intercepted. The bodies of Miguel Angel Lara de la Cruz and his driver were found the following day, January 26, inside an abandoned vehicle on the Temascaltepec-Luvianos highway. In addition to the 70-year prison sentence, the maximum for this crime, the judge ordered Martinez Robles to pay a fine of $11,522 for each victim in damages and suspended his civil and political rights. The former officer was arrested in 2023 as a result of the operation. joint effort between the state prosecutor's office, The Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection, the National Guard, and the Secretariat of National Defense.

This sentence represents the eleventh conviction obtained against the 16 priority targets of “Operation Swarm,” a strategy that has so far resulted in the arrest of 60 alleged perpetrators for links to organized crime in the state.

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