Journalist Irving Pineda locates Amílcar Olán in Switzerland

Irving Pineda walked up to Jorge Amílcar Olán Aparicio outside a house in Lugano, Switzerland, and said, “Hola, ¿cómo estás?” Olán fled toward the door.

Azteca Noticias posted the resulting report on Sept. 28 under the title asking how the reporter found him. The material comes from Pineda’s work for the network and from an interview he gave on Hechos Meridiano with Alejandro Villalvazo and Christian Lara.

An anonymous call to TV Azteca first pointed the newsroom to Vía Collina in Lugano, the channel’s description of the video states. Pineda followed that tip to a red house known as the Casa Roja, marked number 20, facing a school and beside a park. The mailbox carried the name Jorge Olán Aparicio. Coverage by Marcela Cervantes and by the network places Olán there with his wife, two children and a cleaning woman. César Contreras, writing for Azteca Noticias, reported that the children walked alone to and from the nearby school.

Physical changes complicated the identification. Pineda told the network he had to match the man’s voice against earlier audio because of a beard, a mustache and facial surgery. Once he was sure, the wait continued. “Me tuve que esperar siete días para poder dar con él; la primera vez que lo vi, tuve que esperar siete días para volverlo a ver, bajó a la misma banca,” Pineda said. Only then did he approach.

“Dimos con él (...) pese a los millones que tiene, él no anda en la calle, está escondido, no sale, sale poquitito. No se asoma, él anda literalmente escondido,” he added in the same reporting. The encounter itself stayed short. Contreras wrote that Olán answered the request for an interview with a closed-mouth “Ujum,” then threatened to call the police and tried to seize and smash the crew’s camera. Pineda described what followed on Hechos Meridiano: “Después de lo que vimos, él se pone más violento. Se encierra, quiere quitar la cámara, la quiere destruir ahí, pues lo evito a toda costa. Se pone más violento, empieza con sus groserías, luego ya se mete a su casa.” The reporter and cameraman left with the footage already recorded.

Azteca Noticias has described Olán as a financial operator for the group it calls the Cártel de Tabasco, also labeled the Clan del Malestar, and as close to Andy and Gonzalo López Beltrán. The same reporting links him to contracts tied to the Tren Interoceánico and the Tren Maya, to the fuel-theft scheme known as huachicol fiscal, and to the sale of ballast. Pineda’s pieces note that the Fiscalía General de la República under Ernestina Godoy has no open investigation against him.