Explosive Real Estate Scam Revealed in Cancun’s ‘Ciudad Varuna’

Dozens of individuals have been defrauded in a real estate scam involving the Ciudad Varuna development in Cancun, Quintana Roo. The victims, who had purchased land in the area, have sought refunds from Global Martinez, the firm involved, but to no avail. Despite the 413-hectare land being nationally owned, the companies Ciudad Varuna and Invert Varuna allegedly used counterfeit documents to subdivide and sell plots to hundreds of families across the country, making over 200 million pesos in the process.

In March 2022, the Ministry of Agrarian, Territorial and Urban Development (SEDATU) lodged a complaint about the fraudulent property title of the Varuna site, which was supposedly owned by José Luis de la Fuente Pastor. A few months later, another title emerged under the name of Armando Jesús Martínez Bellos, signed in 1990 by the then Secretary of Agrarian Reform, Victor Cervera Pacheco. However, SEDATU has confirmed that this title is also a forgery.

The counterfeit title was entered into the Public Property Registry of Quintana Roo. However, according to records, its folio number actually belongs to a different property, named San Luis, owned by Lucilo Medina Aldana. Martínez Bellos allegedly used this false title to sell the land to Adelaida Lucely Dzib Tinah for 400,000 pesos, using a deed number that belongs to another property and different owners, making their deed also a fake.

Despite these counterfeit documents, Adelaida Lucely, an employee of Global Martinez, was assigned a cadastral key and the land was valued at 32 million pesos. She lives in a modest house on the outskirts of Cancun and appears to have been used to facilitate the scam. On September 8, 2022, she signed over the land to Invert Varuna, a company where Armando Jesús Martínez Bellos and his son Marvin Jesús Martínez Chi are partners. The company then sold hundreds of plots using the forged documents.

Roman Meyer Falcon, Secretary of Agrarian, Territorial and Urban Development, urged victims to file lawsuits. He emphasized that many investors who bought in good faith have lost significant amounts of money due to such scams. The municipal government of Benito Juárez has yet to respond to requests for comment on the matter.