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In July 2020, Mexico sent an extradition request to Canada, where he was last spotted. But two months later, Lopez Obrador said that Mexico was now asking Israel to extradite Zeron. Zeron is also wanted for questioning on other issues, including the suspected embezzlement of over a billion pesos (more than $50 million) in public funds.
He's also involved in a scandal with a clear connection to Israel, as Haaretz reported in November. As noted, he headed the agency that bought the phone-hacking software Pegasus from NSO and is suspected of abusing the spyware. According to emails from 2015 from a rival company, Hacking Team, and media reports in Mexico about that period, Zeron insisted on buying Pegasus even though it was substantially more expensive than the alternatives. His agency was also named in contracts released by Mexico's prosecution in response to a freedom of information request from the Israeli organization Octopus.
NSO group has repeatedly claimed that it sells Pegasus only to security services and law enforcement agencies, and only for the purpose of combating serious crimes and terrorism. But research by Citizen Lab, as well as investigations in Mexico and other countries, indicate that buyers have often used the software to spy on journalists, human rights activists, and, in Mexico's case, even researchers for the international inquiry commission into the murder of the Ayotzinapa students.
Zeron was considered a key player in importing sophisticated cyber products during those years. According to reports by Amitai Ziv in TheMarker and the Mexican magazine Proceso, as part of Forbidden Stories's Cartel Project, Zeron had ties with Israeli middlemen who sold Pegasus and other cyber products to various agencies in Mexico.
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