Looks like Rafa Marquez, captain of the Mexico national soccer team, is in some trouble with the U.S. Treasury. Wednesday, the Treasury announced that he and 20 others (including Mexican singer Julion Alvarez) would be sanctioned for providing financial support and covering the tracks of a Mexican drug trafficking organization of which is tied to some major cartels.
Noticieros Televisa
This news comes after a careful investigation done by a combination of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Homeland Security, Office of Foreign Assets Control, DEA, and the Mexican government. As a result, all U.S. held or controlled equity belonging to Rafa Marquez, Julion Alvarez and others involved in the investigation have been frozen. The penalties for this could cost them each upwards of $1 million and most likely their reputations.
As a Mexican who has played on both European and the Mexican teams, Marquez has achieved plenty in his career, often looked at as the Mexico team’s biggest asset. Marquez has gone as far as creating a soccer academy and health rehab clinics with the revenue won from his success as a player. However, the investigation uncovered that those enterprises too had connections to the drug trafficking organization.
Both Rafa Marquez and Julion Alvarez have been accused of acting as “front persons” for organizations headed by a man by the name of Raul Flores Hernandez who has been in the business of drug trafficking for over 30 years. A veteran of sorts, Flores Hernandez has connections with cartels across Mexico and has made alliances with people like Marquez, Alvarez and others like them in order to assist in covering his tracks. While Marquez has yet to comment on the situation via his social channels, Alvarez has promised a press conference where his team would inform the public of the “necessary information”.