The family wants the people responsible to be brought to justice after the leaked footage – which shows a severed foot with painted toenails – spread like wildfire across the internet.
Two Mexican police officers were arrested yesterday for looting from the wreckage site. One of these officers is thought to have sold the images to the media.
Though the video was not confirmed as being authentic, the Rivera family said they believe it is due to the items in the video and images of the mangled body parts.
It also emerged the company that owns the luxury jet Jenni Rivera was traveling in is under investigation by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and the agency seized two of its planes earlier this year as part of the ongoing probe.
DEA spokeswoman Lisa Webb Johnson confirmed on Thursday the planes owned by Las Vegas-based Starwood Management were seized in Texas and Arizona.
The agency also has subpoenaed all the company’s records, including any correspondence it has had with a former Tijuana mayor who U.S. law enforcement officials have long suspected has ties to organized crime.
Sources close to the Riveras told TMZ the family is appalled that anyone would even think about leaking something like that, especially if it was a first responder.
“We’re told the severed foot was the most painful part to watch because Jenni was very particular about her feet and toes,” the source said.
The officers were caught after images of the crash site were found on one of the arrested officers’ cell phones.
The extremely graphic photos depicted body parts and personal documents belonging to those aboard the doomed flight, including Jenni Rivera, 43, a singer and reality star known as the “Queen of Banda”.
The Spanish news agency EFE identified the arrested officers as Luis Antonio Ávila Moreno, 23 and Mario Alberto García Pacheco, 24.
The items that the duo allegedly stole from the plane were not identified by investigators.
As the issue of police corruption rears its ugly head, Mexican authorities hope to continue with the investigation of the tragic crash on Sunday.
A person speaking on behalf of the Mexican Consulate in Los Angeles told TMZ: “We have over 2,000,000 police officers [in Mexico], and unfortunately some of these officers have been corrupt in the past, but we cannot generalize that the whole force is corrupt.”
The rep added: “Mexico has been working very hard to make their citizens and tourists safe, however it is not fair to judge the whole tree based upon a few bad apples.”
The body of Jenni Rivera was found in the wreckage along with the bodies of six others, including her publicist, lawyer, make-up artist and two pilots.
News of the arrests came as Rivera’s family identified her remains.
Nuevo Leon state security spokesman Jorge Domene said DNA tests are still pending. Jenni Rivera’s remains will be given to the family once the tests are completed in coming days.
It was also revealed this week that Jenni Rivera was in the final states of buying the Learjet plane from business executive Christian E. Esquino Nunez, 50, who has a long and checkered legal past.
Corporate records list his sister-in-law as the company’s only officer, but insurance companies that cover some of the firm’s planes say in court documents that the woman is merely a front and that Christian E. Esquino Nunez is the one in charge.
Christian E. Esquino Nunez’s legal woes date back decades. He pleaded guilty to a fraud charge that stemmed from a major drug investigation in Florida in the early 1990s and most recently was sentenced to two years in federal prison in a California aviation fraud case.
Christian E. Esquino Nunez, a Mexican citizen, was deported upon his release.
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