Guadalupe Lizárraga Jueves, 01 de Octubre del 2026, 00:09
For years, the Baja California Attorney General’s Office contracted with Santelices-linked companies that supplied sensitive technology, security equipment, communications services and event production.
By Guadalupe Lizárraga
Inteliproof Efficient, a company linked to Marco Antonio Moreno Gómez Santelices, supplied technology to the Baja California Attorney General’s Office that was associated in transparency records with private-communications interception, surveillance of individuals, tracking of devices and criminal investigations. The prosecutor’s office itself withheld information about the use of those tools, arguing that disclosing their capabilities could compromise investigations and operations against criminal organizations.
Three years later, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned Santelices, Inteliproof Efficient and other companies in his network as part of an action targeting the Los Mayos faction of the Sinaloa Cartel.
The prosecutor’s office maintained ties with companies linked to Santelices during the administration of Ricardo Iván Carpio Sánchez and under the current attorney general, María Elena Andrade Ramírez. Documents reviewed by Los Angeles Press show that Inteliproof had been a supplier to the institution since at least 2023, and that some of the technology acquired was tied to functions the prosecutor’s office itself considered “sensitive.”
A transparency request filed under case number 021381024000264 sought information on the use of technologies associated with the Orion software. The request covered the interception of private communications, surveillance or monitoring of individuals, tracking of devices or equipment, criminal investigations, searches for crime victims and missing persons, as well as the number of people monitored through those technologies.
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The prosecutor’s office decided to withhold the requested information. In its response, it argued that disclosing the use of those technologies could reveal operational capabilities, investigative methods and tactical actions, while also allowing criminal organizations to learn the procedures used by the agency and potentially evade, block or compromise them.
The document does not specify which investigations the prosecutor’s office conducted using the Orion software or who was placed under surveillance. Nor does it establish, at this point, what level of technical access Inteliproof retained to the prosecutor’s systems after supplying the technology.
Invoices issued by Inteliproof Efficient and located in the prosecutor’s office file for 2023 include at least 20 invoices totaling 9.94 million pesos, or about $530,000.
Invoices issued by Inteliproof Efficient to the Baja California Attorney General’s Office during 2023. The records are part of a transparency file documenting purchases made by the institution from the company.
After Carpio left office, the relationship with Santelices-linked companies continued under María Elena Andrade’s administration. The companies involved operated in fields ranging from security and uniforms to advertising and event production.
In 2024, one of Santelices’ companies, Promociones CHF de Baja California, obtained contracts from the prosecutor’s office for institutional communications services. The company later changed its corporate name to Festivales Artistas Mobiliario Asesoría, or FAMA, another Santelices company later added by the U.S. Treasury Department to its sanctions regime.
Contracts located by Los Angeles Press document awards and communications services during that year. An investigation published in September 2025 had identified four transactions involving Promociones CHF and Fama Producciones totaling 3,777,196 pesos.
Between 2024 and 2025, Los Angeles Press has documented at least 6.05 million pesos, or slightly more than $322,000, in contracts between the Baja California Attorney General’s Office and companies linked to Marco Santelices.
The figure is partial because other contracts located involving companies from the same business circle do not publicly disclose the amounts awarded.
The prosecutor’s own documentation also reveals Santelices in a dual role: while companies linked to him were receiving public contracts, he appeared in official records as an “Information Reporter” assigned to the Communications Department.
Two travel assignment reports dated November 29, 2024, place him within that structure. One states that he was sent to San Quintín, Tijuana and Rosarito to support the agency’s information activities and produce institutional materials. Another records an assignment to Tijuana for the same type of work.
In a National Transparency Platform record corresponding to another assignment, both the destination city and the purpose of the assignment appear under the designation “RESERVED INFORMATION.”
November 2024 assignment reports identifying Marco Santelices as an “Information Reporter” assigned to the Communications Department of the Baja California Attorney General’s Office.
In the November 28, 2024 assignment, both the destination city and the purpose of the assignment are classified as “RESERVED INFORMATION.” Source: National Transparency Platform.
During Ricardo Iván Carpio’s tenure, the Communications Department was headed by Erick Reynaga López. When María Elena Andrade took over the prosecutor’s office in 2023, Reynaga left the department. Luis Fernando Palafox also departed, while Carlos Acevedo was sent from the Baja California state government’s communications office to take over the position.
By November 2024, when Santelices appears in official records as an “Information Reporter,” the department’s operational head was Ranulfo Cabrera López, identified in contracts from that year as acting director of the Baja California Attorney General’s Office Communications Department.
In 2025, Los Angeles Press documented Santelices’ relationship with Jesús González Lomelí, who was sanctioned by the United States that same year, as well as his business ties to Jorge Enrique Figueroa Barrozo and Fernando Salgado Chávez. Santelices was even photographed socializing with Salgado at a bar.
Figueroa Barrozo shared ownership interests and management responsibilities with Santelices in security and technology companies, including Inteliproof Efficient and Corporativo TekSeg.
Salgado appears in another branch of the same business network: the entertainment and event business associated with La Familia Presenta, where Los Angeles Press documented Santelices’ involvement.
The relationship with Salgado extended particularly to events held in Tijuana, Valle de Guadalupe and Ensenada.
There was also a public relationship between Fernando Salgado and Ricardo Iván Carpio. The earliest documented Inteliproof contracts with the prosecutor’s office date precisely to Carpio’s administration. Santelices later continued to appear at activities connected to the La Familia group.
María Elena Andrade’s administration did not end the institutional relationship with companies from the same business circle. Corporate names and contracted services changed, but the prosecutor’s office continued doing business with companies linked to Santelices.
In September 2025, Los Angeles Press published the first documents showing those contracts, Santelices’ presence inside the Communications Department and his relationships with business figures who had already been sanctioned by U.S. authorities.
One year later, the Treasury Department formally added Santelices and several of his companies to the U.S. sanctions regime.
The relationship between the prosecutor’s office and the business network surrounding Santelices, Salgado and Figueroa was far broader than it initially appeared: it encompassed investigative technology, security equipment and uniforms, communications services and event production.
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