Omar Ortiz's arrest for kidnapping and association with the Gulf Cartel captured headlines in Mexico, but it is far from the only criminal involvement soccer has experienced.
Since the advent of professional soccer, the game has grown into one of the most lucrative enterprises on Earth, though those following Mexican soccer in recent weeks will know that while money has enabled soccer to become the global powerhouse it is today, the game’s global exposure and financial viability have their dark sides.
Indeed, the connections and money available in the soccer world have attracted some unsavory characters to the game, and the arrest of Mexican goalkeeper Omar Ortiz is just the latest chapter chronicling this sordid partnership.
On Jan. 6, it was reported that Ortiz had been kidnapped. Soon after though, a more accurate version of events transpired, and it was revealed that the 35-year-old – currently serving a two-year suspension for a positive steroid test – had been arrested by Mexican police as part of a group of criminals implicated in the kidnappings of over 20 people.
Most strikingly, Ortiz’s arrest and the subsequent confession tying him to the powerful Gulf Cartel reminds us that the specter of Mexico’s controversial and extremely costly drug war is not far from the game.
Attracted by the connections the former Monterrey and Jaguares player had developed during well over a decade in professional soccer and the knowledge of his drug addiction and financial problems following his two-year suspension following a positive steroid test, the Gulf Cartel found an easy pawn in Monterrey, a city which has gotten increasingly caught up in the drug war over the past year.
Make no mistake though, Ortiz’s arrest is not simply the unfortunate result of a player falling prey to the trappings of fame that a successful soccer career can bring. Though Ortiz cannot be absolved of the blame if he is convicted – he certainly was conscious of his actions – throughout the game’s history soccer, and more importantly the money it involves, attract people who would seek to exploit those involved in the sport for their own gain.
Furthermore, Ortiz’s case is not the first incident of the seedier elements of society intersecting with the Mexican game. Most tangibly, in August 2011, shots rang out outside Estadio Corona in the northern city of Torreon during a match between Santos Laguna and Morelia, sending the players running for the locker rooms and forcing the match to be suspended. The shooters were reportedly targeting the local police chief in a city that has been beset by gang violence in the recent past.
This is not to single out Mexico, rather it is just the most current issue in the history of a long relationship between soccer and organized crime. The potential of soccer both as a moneymaking and money-laundering vehicle is vast. Colombia’s drug war in the 1980s and 1990s and its intimate connection with the world of Colombian soccer have been well documented.
In addition to his vast criminal empire, Pablo Escobar bankrolled his hometown team, Atletico Nacional, during its most successful era. Other drug kingpins across Colombia propped up their own teams, creating a lucrative, but often violent atmosphere in Colombian soccer that saw the murder of referees and others involved in the game and ultimately helped bring down the Colombian national team at the pinnacle of its success in the early 1990s.
In Italy, the Camorra, Naples’ principal mafia organization allegedly developed a similar connection with the successful Napoli sides of the same period and even today have been linked to a spate of crimes targeting Napoli’s top players as both organizations look to revive their fortunes.
While there is not quite a ‘Pablo Escobar’ figure or organization like the Camorra working in Mexican soccer, one (former) Mexican team owner, recently arrived on the Mexican soccer scene, has raised suspicion.
Police raided Club Tijuana owner Jorge Hank Rhon’s residence in the days following his team’s promotion to the Primera Division and recovered an arsenal of weapons, including a pair of weapons linked to homicides in the Baja California state. While this could have undone Tijuana’s newly-achieved promotion, the team quickly moved to clarify that Hank Rhon’s son, Jorge Alberto Hank, had taken over the team from his father, though it remained unclear how much the senior Hank remains involved in the team.
Additonally, Hank Rhon’s gambling empire has aroused the suspicion of the U.S. government as a possible front for money laundering, while a cable from the U.S. consul in Tijuana to the State Department in 2009 said the grounds of the businessman's Agua Caliente racetrack, where Tijuana’s Estadio Caliente is located, were still “secure havens for organized crime on the border.”
While these incidents certainly raise suspicions of Hank Rhon’s connection to organized crime, charges have not been leveled against him to date. Still, these incidents, not to mention his sometimes murky political and business dealings serve as another reminder that the lucrative world of soccer is never too far from the other facets of public life.
Both soccer and political authorities would do well to keep a close eye on the cases of Ortiz and Hank Rhon and to learn the lessons of Colombia over 15 years earlier, not only to ensure the health of the game in Mexico and across the globe, but to ensure a more peaceful future for all people, soccer fans or not.
On Jan. 6, it was reported that Ortiz had been kidnapped. Soon after though, a more accurate version of events transpired, and it was revealed that the 35-year-old – currently serving a two-year suspension for a positive steroid test – had been arrested by Mexican police as part of a group of criminals implicated in the kidnappings of over 20 people.
Most strikingly, Ortiz’s arrest and the subsequent confession tying him to the powerful Gulf Cartel reminds us that the specter of Mexico’s controversial and extremely costly drug war is not far from the game.
Attracted by the connections the former Monterrey and Jaguares player had developed during well over a decade in professional soccer and the knowledge of his drug addiction and financial problems following his two-year suspension following a positive steroid test, the Gulf Cartel found an easy pawn in Monterrey, a city which has gotten increasingly caught up in the drug war over the past year.
Make no mistake though, Ortiz’s arrest is not simply the unfortunate result of a player falling prey to the trappings of fame that a successful soccer career can bring. Though Ortiz cannot be absolved of the blame if he is convicted – he certainly was conscious of his actions – throughout the game’s history soccer, and more importantly the money it involves, attract people who would seek to exploit those involved in the sport for their own gain.
Furthermore, Ortiz’s case is not the first incident of the seedier elements of society intersecting with the Mexican game. Most tangibly, in August 2011, shots rang out outside Estadio Corona in the northern city of Torreon during a match between Santos Laguna and Morelia, sending the players running for the locker rooms and forcing the match to be suspended. The shooters were reportedly targeting the local police chief in a city that has been beset by gang violence in the recent past.
This is not to single out Mexico, rather it is just the most current issue in the history of a long relationship between soccer and organized crime. The potential of soccer both as a moneymaking and money-laundering vehicle is vast. Colombia’s drug war in the 1980s and 1990s and its intimate connection with the world of Colombian soccer have been well documented.
In addition to his vast criminal empire, Pablo Escobar bankrolled his hometown team, Atletico Nacional, during its most successful era. Other drug kingpins across Colombia propped up their own teams, creating a lucrative, but often violent atmosphere in Colombian soccer that saw the murder of referees and others involved in the game and ultimately helped bring down the Colombian national team at the pinnacle of its success in the early 1990s.
In Italy, the Camorra, Naples’ principal mafia organization allegedly developed a similar connection with the successful Napoli sides of the same period and even today have been linked to a spate of crimes targeting Napoli’s top players as both organizations look to revive their fortunes.
While there is not quite a ‘Pablo Escobar’ figure or organization like the Camorra working in Mexican soccer, one (former) Mexican team owner, recently arrived on the Mexican soccer scene, has raised suspicion.
Police raided Club Tijuana owner Jorge Hank Rhon’s residence in the days following his team’s promotion to the Primera Division and recovered an arsenal of weapons, including a pair of weapons linked to homicides in the Baja California state. While this could have undone Tijuana’s newly-achieved promotion, the team quickly moved to clarify that Hank Rhon’s son, Jorge Alberto Hank, had taken over the team from his father, though it remained unclear how much the senior Hank remains involved in the team.
Additonally, Hank Rhon’s gambling empire has aroused the suspicion of the U.S. government as a possible front for money laundering, while a cable from the U.S. consul in Tijuana to the State Department in 2009 said the grounds of the businessman's Agua Caliente racetrack, where Tijuana’s Estadio Caliente is located, were still “secure havens for organized crime on the border.”
While these incidents certainly raise suspicions of Hank Rhon’s connection to organized crime, charges have not been leveled against him to date. Still, these incidents, not to mention his sometimes murky political and business dealings serve as another reminder that the lucrative world of soccer is never too far from the other facets of public life.
Both soccer and political authorities would do well to keep a close eye on the cases of Ortiz and Hank Rhon and to learn the lessons of Colombia over 15 years earlier, not only to ensure the health of the game in Mexico and across the globe, but to ensure a more peaceful future for all people, soccer fans or not.
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