Fronteras

The ex-wife of former Mexican President Vicente Fox was implicated in a money laundering scheme in U.S. District Court in El Paso on Monday. 

The high-profile case charges a prominent West Texas philanthropist with conspiring to launder money for a Mexican drug cartel.  A witness for the prosecution told the court that Lilián de la Concha worked as a consiglierie or advisor to the defunct Milenio Cartel, a Colima offshoot of the Sinaloa Cartel. That witness, Victor Pimentel, was arrested in 2007 with $1 million cash.

Prosecutors say Pimentel was working at the time for the man on trial, an El Paso lawyer and philanthropist, Marco Antonio Delgado. Pimentel testified for prosecutors against Delgado and told the court that the lawyer negotiated a $600 million money laundering scheme for the Milenio Cartel from the U.S. into Mexico. The money Pimentel was caught with in Atlanta was just a trial run. 

Pimentel told the court that Fox's ex-wife, de la Concha, had promised to arrange to have Pimentel's cousin appointed head of the Mexico border crossing in Palomas, Chihuahua, across from Columbus, N.M.

The case has garnered much attention in southwest Texas because Delgado had a reputation as a high-level philanthropist. At one point, he established a $250 million Carnegie Mellon fund in his own name to help Latino students. 

But in Mexico, the news is focused on de la Concha. In 2012, Delgado claims she tried to intervene in the extradition of Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo, one of the Guadalajara Cartel leaders now serving a 40 year prison term for the murder of Drug Enforcement Administration agent Enrique Camarena.

Since leaving office, the former president has taken to criticizing his successor, Felipe Calderón, and his handling of the drug war. He's also become a proponent of marijuana legalization and a critic of U.S. drug policy. Since Enrique Peña Nieto took office, Fox signed a deal to start a talkshow on TV Azteca. 

There are no evident indictments in the United States against de la Concha. The couple was married for 20 years before divorcing in 1990.