Prosecutors in Mexico announced Monday that they had arrested a businessman on suspicion of using the Pegasus malware to eavesdrop on a journalist.
The Israeli spyware firm NSO Group's software has been linked in government surveillance of political opponents and journalists worldwide.
Mexico had the most extensive list — over 15,000 phone numbers — out of more than 50,000 picked for possible surveillance by NSO clients.
Federal prosecutors announced the arrest Monday but did not identify the individual by the presumption of innocence standards.
According to a federal officer who requested anonymity, the suspect is Juan Carlos Garca Rivera, associated with the companies Proyectos y Diseos VME and Grupo KBH. On November 1, he was arrested.
In July, Mexico's top security official said that two prior administrations spent $61 million on Pegasus spyware. The two businesses with which the suspect was associated were reportedly parties to several of the contracts.
According to Leopoldo Maldonado of the press freedom group Article 19, Mexico's first arrest connected to the Pegasus spyware incident.
Garca Rivera is a "technical employee of a private company that acted as an intermediary for the National Security Organization in Mexico and benefited from illegal spying on public figures," Maldonado said, adding that "this does not mean that those responsible have been brought to justice."
Rosa Icela Rodrguez, the Public Safety Secretary, stated in July that records of 31 contracts were signed during President Felipe Calderón from 2006 to 2012 and President Enrique Pea Nieto from 2012 to 2018 had been discovered. Specific agreements may have been misrepresented as procurement of additional equipment.
According to the authorities, numerous contracts with NSO Group were signed using front companies, frequently used in Mexico to allow kickbacks or tax evasion.
Last week, the government's top anti-money laundering investigator revealed that officials from the two previous administrations spent almost $300 million in taxpayer money on malware. However, that figure may not include all spyware and surveillance purchases or consist of contracts that have not yet been identified.
According to Santiago Nieto, chief of Mexico's Financial Intelligence Unit, the bills for programs such as the Pegasus malware appear to have contained excess payments that were possibly funneled back to government officials as bribes.
Nieto stated that the amounts paid and how they were paid indicated government corruption in an already dubious telephone tapping program that targeted journalists, activists, and opposition figures, including now-President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and his inner circle at the time.
López Obrador became president on December 1, 2018, and immediately pledged never to deploy malware. Nieto stated that during the current administration, no transactions had been found.
