The Mexican-American Entrepreneur Julio Santamaria49, pleaded guilty to selling and using spyware in Mexico and the United States to monitor and police political and business rivals.
The former worker Attorney General of the Republic (PGR) He made the confession on Tuesday, February 7, 2023 in a United States federal court.
According to court documents, beginning in or around January 2016, Santamaría began working for a consortium of U.S. and Mexican companies, including a company called Elite By Cargofor which he negotiated the sale of surveillance and interception tools to private citizens and Mexican politicians.
Before working for this consortium, Santamaría worked for the PGR.
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According to the US authorities, Julio Santamaría admitted knowing that, in some cases, his clients within the Mexican government intended to “using the interception equipment for political purposes, rather than for legitimate law enforcement purposes.”
In one case, they knowingly arranged for a mayor in the state of Morelos to gain unauthorized access to the Twitter, Hotmail and iCloud accounts of a political rival.
Carlos Alberto Guerrero Villanuevaowner of Elite by Cargo y Daniel Morenothe company’s chief technology officer, had already pleaded guilty to the same offense last year, admitting that the hacking tools and technologies they negotiated would be used for commercial and personal purposes by private clients.
According to Guerrero’s plea agreement, Elite by Carga sold spyware to the state governments of Baja California and Durangoknowing that the “equipment sold to its Mexican customers could and likely would be used for political purposes”noted the diary The San Diego Union Tribune.
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“The guilty plea helps stop the proliferation of digital tools used for repression and promotes the digital security of U.S. and Mexican citizens.”said the federal prosecutor Randy Grossman.
“This office is committed to disrupting malicious cyber activities and mitigating illegal surveillance.”
Grossman thanked the prosecution team and federal agents for their work on the case.
“Today’s guilty plea demonstrates that cyberspace is not a haven from American justice, and as seen in this case, those who violate privacy rights will be held accountable.” said the special agent in charge, Chad Plantz,
This case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations of the Department of Homeland Securitywith the assistance provided by the Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section of the Department of Justice.
With media information