The governor of Nuevo Leon, Rodrigo Medina, is calling for all casinos in the state to be shut down. He said Tuesday that the state was also investigating Monterrey’s municipal police force for possible ties to the casino attack.
Several city police patrol vehicles were spotted a block from the casino during and immediately after the attack. In security camera and cellphone videos, the officers do not respond.
Mayor Larrazabal and his older brother Manuel Jonas Larrazabal, 53, who is seen in the casino videotapes, are now subjects in the widening extortion and arson probe, said a top state official who spoke on the condition that he not be identified because of the sensitivity of the investigation.
Mexico officials are looking for the owner of the Casino Royale, Raul Rocha Cantu, and have solicited help from Interpol and the U.S. government, saying they think he is hiding in Dallas. An attorney for Rocha Cantu said his client is innocent but fears that he will be killed by gangsters if he returns and doubts that Mexico authorities can protect him.
Of the 52 people who died in the attack Thursday, 42 were women, including matrons who were burned at their bingo tables and overtaken by flames beside the slot machines. A pile of bodies was found, the victims asphyxiated, in the bathrooms where they tried to take refuge.
The Calderon government has responded to the attack by deploying 1,500 additional federal agents, adding to the almost 4,000 soldiers patrolling the streets of Monterrey, Mexico’s most important business and manufacturing hub.
The video images published in El Norte and Reforma newspapers Wednesday appear to be taken from overhead security cameras monitoring a casino floor on three occasions. Time stamps on the video suggest the tapes were made in May, June and August.
The videotape and still images show the mayor’s brother sitting at gaming tables, accepting and counting bundles of Mexican pesos. In one tape, Larrazabal puts the cash into a cardboard box; in another, he stuffs the money in his pocket.
The first video is dated May 30, five days after a convoy of 30 gunmen raided four casinos in the city. Several establishments were in legal disputes with the mayor’s office, including the Casino Royale.
Investigators say that the attacks were warnings from extortionists and that several other casinos were threatened with firebombing last week if they didn’t make their payments.
Five suspected members of the Zetas drug cartel are in custody in connection with the arson attack and were presented to the media on Tuesday in handcuffs. Authorities say the five suspects include planners, drivers, lookouts and perpetrators.State officials say they are seeking additional suspects and are working with intelligence units of the Mexican marines, because they do not trust local police.
One suspect denied that the gang intended to commit mass murder. According to Medina, the governor of Nuevo Leon, the suspects told police, “We just wanted to scare them. They called loudly to the people to leave, but things got out of control.”
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