Mexican TV Host Arrested In Miami With High-Priced Jewelry

Mexican television host Inés Gómez Mont was arrested in Miami on Oct. 30, and images of the detention circulating that day showed her wearing bracelets valued at thousands of dollars, according to journalist Alex Kaffie.

Kaffie reported that on her right wrist she wore a Van Cleef & Arpels Vintage Alhambra bracelet, priced at $5,100 on the French firm's website, made with 18-karat yellow gold and blue agate stones. He also reported she wore on her left wrist a Cartier nail-shaped bracelet in 18-karat gold with diamonds, listed at $16,500 on the brand's official site.

Mexico's Fiscalía General de la República said on X that the arrest followed "the exchange of information with the Government of the United States of America." The agency said Gómez Mont and her husband, Víctor Manuel Álvarez Puga, "have a valid arrest warrant in our country for their probable participation in the crime of equivalent tax fraud."

In late September, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Interpol had removed the red notices against Gómez Mont and Álvarez Puga, and that authorities would be asked to restore them. "We are going to request that the red notice be restored, because if they go to another country, it has to be done with an arrest warrant, because they are criminals," Sheinbaum said.

Both were named in September 2021 in connection with an alleged scheme involving diversion of public funds, simulated contracts, shell invoicing companies and money laundering. Media outlets circulated a photograph on Oct. 30 that appeared to show Gómez Mont handcuffed and held by two federal police officers.

The Fiscalía General de la República said it could not confirm details about the jewelry Gómez Mont wore at the time of her detention.