The Company That Owns the Jet That Caught Fire and Killed Jenni Rivera

The company that owns the plane that crashed in Mexico and killed Jenni Rivera is currently under investigation by the DEA, and two planes from this company were seized earlier this year by this agency.

Christian Esquino Nunez — commonly referred to as Ed Nunez — is under scrutiny by the federal government for falsifying records regarding aircraft purchased in Mexico and sold in the U.S., such as tail numbers and inspection stamps. Commerce & Industry asserts it would have denied policies had Nunez provided truthful answers on his applications for coverage.

Early Life and Education

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has initiated an investigation into Starwood Management, the aviation company that owned the jet that crashed in northern Mexico last month and caused Jenni Rivera and six others to die. Christian Eduardo Esquino Nunez of Coronado has allegedly been connected with Starwood and has been implicated in running an alleged smuggling plot on behalf of Col Muammar Gaddafi’s son in Libya.

Nunez, commonly referred to by his nickname – Ed Nunez – has an extensive criminal history dating back to the early 1990s, including indictment and convictions for conspiracy to conceal money and fraud in regards to aircraft. Additionally, two insurers rescinded coverage for his Starwood Hawker jet that the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) seized in Tucson and Texas earlier this year.

Commerce & Industry claims it would have declined Nunez’s policy had they known of his past; QBE alleges he misled it on a loan application form from 2004.

Professional Career

Esquino, formerly residing in Coronado, has an extensive criminal background that includes drug trafficking convictions and falsifying government inspection stamps. He was sentenced to two years of incarceration for fraud involving aircraft he purchased in Mexico before selling to U.S. buyers – something he denies doing – as well as millions owed in state and federal taxes.

La politica, a news blog which has been tracking Cynthia Vanier and her alleged associates Gabriela de Cueto and Pierre Flensborg since their arrests, reports that Esquino is expected to give evidence against them. He owns Wing Financial and GG Global Holdings which leases private jets.

CNN unveiled some of his past, reporting that insurers QBE and Commerce & Industry Insurance Company filed suits this year against Starwood to cancel their policies due to allegations that Starwood withheld information regarding their crash-prone aircraft.

Achievement and Honors

Christian Esquino’s business company has come into focus following Jenni Rivera’s tragic plane crash earlier this month. Esquino supplied the aircraft that carried Ms. Rivera on her fact-finding trip to Libya last year, funded by Montreal engineering and construction firm SNC-Lavalin. Later he served as key Mexican government witness against allegations that Ms. Rivera and her entourage conspired to bring Col. Muammar Gaddafi’s son into Mexico without his knowledge; an allegation that he strongly denies. Additionally he was convicted in 2004 of falsifying aircraft logbooks and counterfeiting government inspection stamps, plus millions owed in state and federal taxes against him as well.

Personal Life

Christian Esquino Nunez, owner of the private jet that crashed last week and killed Mexican singer Jenni Rivera as well as its 78-year-old pilot aboard, has an extensive criminal history dating back to Florida’s cocaine trade in the 1980s – where his arrest and conviction on drug smuggling charges began – dating all the way back to Florida’s cocaine war days in Florida in 1980s. Since then he has been arrested several times on drug smuggling charges while also facing arrest and conviction on drug smuggling charges as DEA is investigating him further regarding providing aircraft that Ms Vanier used during NATO-backed campaign to topple Muammar Gaddafi from power.

Federal prosecutors claimed during Esquino’s bail hearing that he was connected with the Arrellano-Felix brothers’ Tijuana cartel as well as with a plot to bring Gaddafi’s son into Mexico illegally.

At that hearing, the DEA requested witnesses be subpoenaed for questioning under oath – including two insurance companies that insure the Starwood Management plane used by Ms. Vanier to fly herself and her group of escorts into Libya.