Mexican Official Who Killed Self Had U.S. Bank Account

A top law enforcement official who apparently committed suicide last week had a bank account in California, in addition to $1.6 million already found in safe deposit boxes in Mexico, officials said Friday.

The Mexico City attorney general’s office said it did not know how much Juan Manuel Izabal Villicana had in his account at the California Commerce Bank.

The body of Izabal, chief of the federal attorney general’s administrative branch, was found March 8 with a bullet wound to the head and a pistol in his hand. His death occurred a day after bank officials told him that they accidentally had found $700,000 in his safe deposit box and had notified authorities.

In what officials described as suicide notes, Izabal said the money was “difficult to explain,” though he insisted that it wasn’t connected to drug trafficking. Izabal had administered finances at the attorney general’s office.

Handwriting analyses of the notes confirmed that they had been written by Izabal, the attorney general’s office said Friday.

After Izabal’s death, two more safe deposit boxes in his name were discovered. The three boxes contained a total of $1.625 million in cash and traveler’s checks.