The Jalisco Prosecutor’s Office is interrogating employees of the District 5 bar in Puerto Vallarta, where former Governor Jorge Aristóteles Sandoval Díaz was attacked and killed after an attack early Friday morning.
The employees were summoned, in part, because of the alteration of the crime scene, since the establishment’s toilet area was cleaned, where an individual, reportedly supported by other subjects, shot Sandoval in the back.
The interrogations and the security of the bar staff is based on the cleaning of the toilet area after the attack, in addition to the removal of the bullet cartridges, and the removal of the videographic material from the closed-circuit cameras.
According to the Penal Code of the state of Jalisco, anyone who alters a crime scene could receive up to three years in prison and a 26,000 pesos fine. That is, anyone who “manipulates, deletes, hides, subtracts, alters, substitutes, damages, contaminates, or carries out action related to the instruments, objects, or proceeds of a crime.”
According to municipal records, the establishment is owned by Octavio Manuel Altamirano Ochoa, and is linked to the Ferro y Méndez law firm, who litigate in the field of intellectual property. He is the grandson of the former PRI governor of Nayarit, Rigoberto Ochoa Zaragoza, whose administration was between 1993 and 1999. He stood out for his union leadership in the tobacco industry.
The family has been in the restaurant sector for more than 30 years, and participates in at least 10 commercial companies dedicated to entertainment in various parts of the country, and has businesses such as taquerías, nightclubs, cabarets, markets, and real estate companies in the states of Jalisco, Nayarit, Mexico City, Baja California Sur, and Quintana Roo, with companies such as Operadora Risoto, Operadora de Servicios Restauranteros Altamirano, Merkword, and Operadora Hilos.
The company in charge of administering District 5 is Jomansac. Among the founding partners is José Manuel Sánchez Cruz, recognized as a businessman in the entertainment field.