Maradona’s new club owned by powerful clan with shady ties

MEXICO CITY: The latest chapter in Argentine football legend Diego Maradona’s colorful career will be coaching Mexican second-division club Dorados, a team owned by a powerful family that has faced accusations of ties to drug trafficking.

Maradona, 57, raised eyebrows Friday with the announcement that he had signed on to manage the struggling club in Sinaloa, a state best known as home to the drug cartel of jailed kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.

Rumors and jokes immediately swirled online about what interest Maradona, who has publicly struggled with drug addiction, might have in such a deal.

“Maradona is headed to a place full of narcos. What could possibly go wrong?” cracked one Twitter user.

But joking aside, the clan behind the club, the Hank family, has faced accusations of links to Mexico’s lucrative and violent drug trafficking industry.

The family patriarch, Jorge Hank Rhon, is a businessmen and politician whose company, Grupo Caliente, owns an empire of casinos, hotels and a dog racing track in Tijuana, across the US border from San Diego.

The company also owns firstdivision football club Xolos in Tijuana, in addition to Dorados.

Hank Rhon’s son, Jorgealberto Hank Inzunza, is the president of both clubs.

He said Dorados -- who are currently in 13th place in their 15team league -- want Maradona to stay for the remainder of the 2018 season and all of next season.

“In my conversations with him he’s been very excited to come coach here. Honestly, it was easier to convince him than I thought,” he told ESPN.

Dorados were previously best known as the club where Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola wrapped up his playing career.

They are based in Culiacan, the capital of the western state of Sinaloa. But the Hanks’s stronghold is Tijuana, in the north.

Hank Rhon, 62, was Tijuana’s mayor from 2004 to 2007.

He has faced accusations of involvement in organized crime.

In 2011, he was arrested when authorities raided his mansion and seized more than 80 guns and thousands of rounds of ammunition.

Prosecutors said two of the guns had been used to commit murders. But a judge ordered Hank Rhon’s release after 10 days, in a widely criticized ruling.