Mexican federal officials are pushing for the reopening of an investigation into a private border state hospital for irregularities in organ transplants. Some allegations include favoring recipients with political ties or those from wealthy families, plus cover-ups by government authorities.
The investigation deals with organ transplants in 2017 performed at Hospital Christus Muguerza, a private institution in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon. One of the recipients who moved to the top of the list is the stepson of a current gubernatorial candidate.
Breitbart Texas obtained exclusive access to investigative documents from the original case file.
The probe initiated when the Federal Commission for the Protection Against Sanitary Risks (COFEPRIS) carried out audit #17-AF-3319-01302-TV in May 2017, revealing missing signatures by the Internal Committee for Transplants which are needed for any such operations in the hospital. The document required 12 signatures with only five listed on the original document; which is also a handwritten page instead of formal letterhead.
The audit led to an investigation by Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office (then PGR-now FGR) over alleged illegal transplants where several individuals on the waiting list were passed over in place of others. Another irregularity dealt with a missing autopsy and failure to notify law enforcement about a gunshot victim.
According to a complaint filed with the PGR, filed as #FED/SEIDF/UNAI-NL/0001542/2017, one of the transplants in January 2017 favored a politician’s stepson despite being six positions down on the list. Some of the documents involving the patient were either backdated or filed two days before the organ donor actually died.
The investigation also led federal authorities to single out the former Attorney General of Nuevo Leon Bernardo Jaime Gonzalez for failing to provide the autopsy reports of an organ donor who had allegedly died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The lack of cooperation led federal authorities to file a formal request listed in document #FED/NL/ESC/0000307/2019.
In early 2021, Orlando Guadalupe Robles Rosales, an agent with the FGR ruled that no criminal action would be taken in the case. However, the COFEPRIS has filed a series of lawsuits asking a federal judge to reopen the case and prosecute the individuals behind the irregularities and the cover-up.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com.
Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com.
Gerald “Tony” Aranda is an international journalist with more than 20 years of experience working in high-risk areas for print and broadcast news outlets investigating organized crime, corruption, and drug trafficking in the U.S. and Mexico. In 2016, Gerald took up the pseudonym of “Tony” when he joined Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project. Since then, he has come out of the shadows and become a contributing writer for Breitbart Texas.
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