The Farías case: from the Navy to the High Risk list
Mexican Rear Admiral Fernando Farías Laguna is no longer just a name on an Interpol red notice. Now he is a “High Risk” detainee in Argentina, and the Federal Penitentiary Service (SPF) did not skimp on showing his transfer.
The video, published on Friday, shows him putting on a beige uniform while an agent tells him the phrase that seals his new status: “From this moment on, you enter the orbit of the SPF.” They did not say which center they took him to, but the choreography was like a movie: the Alcaidas Division, the Special Intervention Group and even the Armored Black Panthers participated. Exaggeration? For someone accused of being a key player in a tax huachicol network, perhaps not.
The plot that led him there
Farías, 47, was arrested on April 23 in Palermo. He lived under a false identity—Luis Lemus Ramos—in a temporary rental apartment, after arriving in Argentina on April 1. Mexican authorities have been looking for him for organized crime linked to huachicol fiscal, since 2023. According to investigations, he coordinated a network that included public officials, private companies and personnel of the Armed Forces.
“It occurred within the framework of international cooperation with the intervention of the National Criminal and Federal Correctional Court No. 12, headed by Dr. Julián Daniel Ercolini, in the extradition process,” explained the SPF in a statement.
If convicted, the sentence could be up to 40 years in prison. But, as always, the story has more layers: how did a rear admiral come to coordinate such a network? And what will happen to the others involved in Mexico? For now, Farías is classified as a High Risk detainee, and his future depends on an extradition process that promises to be long.




