Juan Jesús Martínez Espinoza (born December 28, 1959), is a Mexican national being held in prison in Argentina on drug charges.
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Early life
Martinez Espinoza was born in Apatzingán, Michoacán on December 28, 1959 to Jesús Preciado and Juana Espinoza. His mother Juana was later remarried to Vicente Martínez after his father died. Martínez adopted all of Espinoza's children, giving them his last name.
Family
Martinez Espinoza is married to Rosalba Soltero Naranjo (born July 23, 1961) of Tecolotlán, Jalisco. They have two children, Rosalba Adriana Preciado and Jessica Preciado Soltero.
Business
From 1979 to 1986, Martínez Espinoza worked at a business in a wholesale market called La Michoacana in Guadalajara, Jalisco. Due to his success, he opened another outlet in the Ponceano Arriaga market, also in Guadalajara. From 1986 to about 1990, he headed a shoe factory in Guadalajara named Jessica after his youngest daughter. After 1990, he started a small chain of car washes, also named Jessica in Guadalajara. During the 1990s, he opened a car wash called Sales Apatzingan in Santa Ana, California and a taquería or taco restaurant named Apatzinganin Anaheim, California.
Since the late 1990s, Martínez Espinosa has worked selling and exporting leather and leather products with the company Arte Mexicano con Vida S. A.. He has promoted small businesses in León, Guanajuato, helping them band together to export leather products. In 2008 he started Verona S.A. de C.V. to sell leather products.
Drug charges
In July 2008, Martínez Espinosa was accused of making and selling methamphetamine. He was arrested while sleeping at a hotel in Asunción, Paraguay on October 2, 2008. His wife and youngest daughter were the first family in Argentina to raise their voice in defense of Espinoza's case. He denies all charges. He is being held in a prison in Marcos Paz, Unidad Penitenciaria Federal II de Marcos Paz, Argentina.