The Florence Cassez telemontaje - Mexico's staged live police raid

DEC 09 2005

On 9 December 2005 Florence Cassez and Israel Vallarta were detained at the Las Chinitas ranch by federal police. The following morning Televisa and TV Azteca crews broadcast what audiences believed was a live raid freeing kidnapping victims. On 5 February 2006 police chief Genaro García Luna admitted the capture scenes had been reconstructed so news programmes could carry the operation 'live'. In January 2013 Mexico's Supreme Court ordered Cassez's immediate release, voiding her 60-year sentence because the televised montaje had tainted the criminal process.