Developer Jailed in Nuevo León Over 57 Million Peso Tulum Real Estate Fraud

A real estate developer tied to a luxury project in Tulum was arrested in Nuevo León over a Tulum real estate fraud case that authorities estimate at 57 million pesos.

José Manuel Mireles Verástegui, identified in published reports as the detained developer, was taken to the Apodaca prison in the Monterrey metropolitan area, where he will remain while a control judge decides whether to bind him over for trial. His arrest puts a face on a pattern that has shadowed the Riviera Maya construction boom for years. Buyers pay for preconstruction homes that never get built.

An arrest in San Pedro Garza García

State investigators detained Mireles Verástegui on the streets of San Pedro Garza García, an affluent municipality in Nuevo León, after a control judge issued an arrest warrant. He was transferred to the Centro de Reinserción Social de Apodaca and placed at the disposal of the court for his initial hearing on a fraud charge, according to information released by Nuevo León authorities.

Prosecutors have kept the investigation file under reserve. The state attorney general's office has not ruled out pursuing charges against other partners linked to the same scheme, which centers on developments in Quintana Roo.

How the Tulum real estate fraud case began

The complaint at the heart of the Tulum real estate fraud case came from a single investor, whose identity her legal team has withheld for security reasons. Her lawyer, Gabriel Garza Fernández, says she was persuaded years ago to put money into a series of real estate projects that were never completed.

According to her account, the relationship started with Pedro Babb Villarreal, a 58-year-old businessman from San Pedro Garza García whom she had known since childhood. That long friendship, her lawyer argues, is what made the pitch credible. Babb allegedly invited her to invest in a luxury residential development planned for Tulum through one of his companies.

Five years passed with no progress on the project, and the money was never returned, according to the complaint.

The apartments offered in place of a refund

When the Tulum project stalled, Mireles Verástegui allegedly proposed a different form of repayment. He offered to hand over eight apartments in a tourism complex called Emma and Elissa, located in Playa del Carmen and administered by him, according to the plaintiff's representation.

Reporting on the case identifies the company behind that development as Aldea Oceana Holdings. The plaintiff's lawyer describes a broader method in which clients are folded into a chain of companies that, he alleges, hold value only on paper and prove worthless when a buyer tries to sue. None of these allegations has been settled in a final ruling.

This is not the first time the developer has faced the courts. According to the newspaper La Jornada, Mireles Verástegui was bound over for trial in 2022 and released through an amparo that required him to sign in periodically. The same reporting names a third partner, Carlos Eduardo González Hernández, as also covered by the recent suspension orders.

A jurisdiction fight over an amparo granted far from Nuevo León

While Mireles Verástegui sits in Apodaca, Babb remains free. He obtained a provisional suspension through an amparo, a constitutional protection that, for now, shields him from arrest.

According to the plaintiff's lawyer, that protection was granted by a federal judge based in Matamoros, Tamaulipas. The plaintiff's side challenged the decision through a queja before the Federal Judicial Discipline Tribunal, arguing that the alleged crimes, the addresses involved, the criminal case, and the arrest warrant all belong to Nuevo León, not Tamaulipas.

The judge publicly confirmed that she granted the suspension in Babb's favor. She clarified that the amparo has not reached a final resolution, which means the proceeding remains open.

An investigation that may reach beyond two names

The case sits inside a wider crisis of confidence in the Riviera Maya property market, where preconstruction sales have drawn buyers from across Mexico and abroad and where stalled or abandoned projects have left a trail of complaints. A 2025 Bloomberg investigation documented foreign investors who lost their savings to Tulum developments that never materialized.

For now, the open questions are procedural. Whether Babb's suspension holds, whether the jurisdiction challenge succeeds, and whether prosecutors widen the case to other partners will shape what happens to the 57 million pesos the plaintiff says she is owed. The investigation in Nuevo León remains active.

Should preconstruction buyers in Tulum and Playa del Carmen demand stronger legal guarantees before they invest? Join the conversation and share your perspective with us on Instagram and Facebook at @thetulumtimes.

*AI-generated image.