The former governor of Michoacán, Silvano Aureoles Conejo, is a fugitive from justice due to an arrest warrant against him for alleged crimes of embezzlement, money laundering, fraudulent administration, and criminal association. According to state and federal sources, the arrest warrant is related to an alleged overpricing in the construction of seven state police barracks amounting to 5 billion 186 million pesos, which were incorrectly registered as leases.
The state government has reported that the construction company in charge of these works left the jobs unfinished and abandoned. In addition to Silvano Aureoles, three other former officials from his administration are fugitives from justice: Carlos Maldonado Mendoza, former Secretary of Finance; Mario Delgado Murillo, former Finance delegate of the Secretariat of Public Security (SSP); Elizabeth Villegas Pineda, former administrative delegate of the SSP; and José Antonio Bernal Bustamante, former Secretary of Public Security of Michoacán.
It has been made known that the arrest warrant for the former governor and several of his collaborators was issued by Judge Patricia Sánchez Nava, of the Reclusorio Oriente, following a complaint filed in 2021 by the current Morena governor, Alfredo Ramírez Bedolla. The investigation is under the charge of the Specialized Prosecutor's Office for the Fight Against Corruption of the FGR and focuses on the barracks located in Apatzingán, Lázaro Cárdenas, Coalcomán, Jiquilpan, Zitácuaro, Uruapan, and Huetamo, the construction of which was supposedly awarded directly, despite being registered as leases.
In light of rumors circulating about the possibility that Aureoles had been detained in Jalisco, President Claudia Sheinbaum stated that she had no official confirmation regarding that matter and that it was a case for the Attorney General's Office (FGR), so she did not provide further details on the topic.
