News Americas, MEXICO CITY, Mexico, Weds. June 15, 2011: A former mayor of the Mexican city of Tijuana is a free man after a judge yesterday threw out weapons charges against him.
Jorge Hank Rhon, 55, an eccentric billionaire, walked out of jail after Judge Blanca Evelia Parra Meza ruled late Monday that the government had failed to present sufficient evidence to support the weapons charges against him.
Hank Rhon had been held without bail since his arrest and she ordered his release, along with 10 men who had been arrested at his compound, all of them apparently security guards.
Prosecutors in Baja California state had said last Friday that evidence tied two of the guns found on the compound with a murder in 2009 and another one in 2010.
Hank Rhon served as mayor of Tijuana between 2004 and 2007 and lost in his bid to become the state governor.
