Local merchants and other wealthy Mexicans provided the bullion for the coins as loans, which were usually mandatory and often made at the point of a gun.
The Fox administration has urged wealthier Mexicans in the United States to begin channeling more of their remittances into projects with long-term objectives.
But for many wealthy Mexicans in the United States, those regions are home.
The missing animals belonged to a wealthy Mexican who hired an armed posse to recover them.
It was routine for wealthy Mexicans to move $9 million in suitcases, he said, attributing prosecutors' skepticism to ignorance of Mexican ways.
Kidnappers have focused on wealthy Mexicans and largely avoided foreigners.
Earlier this year, a wealthy Mexican who had bought the insurance was kidnapped just a few days short of the deadline.
Empress Carlota began holding parties for the wealthy Mexicans to raise money for poor houses.
They are playing cat-and-mouse with police, joining a list of drug traffickers, a former governor and other wealthy Mexicans who thumb their noses at law enforcement here.
She worked her way up the ladder to head the New York-based unit at Citibank that advises wealthy Mexicans.