A Guadalajara businessman who plead guilty to money laundering in San Antonio, Texas, invested some of his ill-gotten gains in the film “The Passion of Christ.”
A former resident of Texas, Alejandro Sanchez Garza, 44, was the former owner of the Barbaresco Bar in Guadalajara’s Colonia Providencia. According to prosecutors, he wired earnings from drug sales in the United States to family members in Mexico, who in turn sent the money back to legitimate San Antonio businesses. The funds were invested in real estate developments, bars, restaurants and even the epic Mel Gibson movie about the final days of Jesus Christ.
Guadalajara daily El Informador said Thursday that Sanchez Garza and his brother Mauricio, who is also implicated in the U.S. indictment, are the sons of Jesús Sanchez Barba, a real estate developer who was accused by the Drug Enforcement Administration in the 1980s of laundering money for drug kingpin Rafael Caro Quintero, now serving a 40-year prison term.
Sánchez Barba fled Texas in 2011 and took refuge in Mexico but turned himself into U.S. authorities in September of last year.
According to El Informador, neither Sanchez Barba or his brother faced any charges in Mexico relating to money laundering or involvement in the drug trade.