Óscar Miranda Abogado
Áreas de práctica
Ver todasDefensa estratégica · juicios orales · amparo penal
Divorcios · pensión · custodia · sucesiones
Despido, finiquito y liquidación · lo que te corresponde de verdad
Contratos · arrendamiento · daños · litigio
Cobro de deudas · pagaré · juicios ejecutivos
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Defensa SAT · TFJA · predial · amparo fiscal
Clausuras · multas · INVEA · juicio de nulidad
Residencias · naturalización · INM
Compraventa · escrituración · vicios ocultos
Negativa de pensión · semanas cotizadas · Modalidad 40
Asesoría inicial desde $2,000 MXN · Lunes a viernes 9:00 – 21:00
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CRIMINAL DEFENSE FOR FOREIGNERS · MEXICO CITY
If you or someone you love has been arrested in Mexico, the next 48 hours matter more than anything that happens afterward. You need a criminal defense lawyer in Mexico City who explains the Mexican system as it actually works — not through the lens of US or UK television. Óscar Miranda is a licensed Mexican attorney (cédula profesional 13195234) with a master’s degree in criminal law, defending foreign clients in English, with a 24-hour urgent line for detentions.
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Most arrests of foreigners happen in flagrancia — during or immediately after the alleged act. The detainee is taken before the Ministerio Público(the prosecutor’s office), and a constitutional clock starts: under Article 16 of the Mexican Constitution, the prosecutor has a maximum of 48 hours to either release you or bring you before a judge. That window doubles to 96 hours only in organized-crime cases. Those first 48 hours are when evidence is fixed, statements are taken and the defense either exists or does not.
From the first moment, you have rights that do not depend on your nationality or immigration status:
The two sentences that protect you: “I want my lawyer present” and “I want my consulate notified.” Then stop talking. Nothing you explain in hour two — in a language you half understand, without counsel — will help you in month six.
The question every foreign family asks first is “how much is bail?” — and the honest answer is that Mexico has no cash-bail system like the US. There are no bail bondsmen, and nobody can “post bond” at the police station. Instead, a judge imposes medidas cautelares (precautionary measures) chosen from a legal catalog: periodic check-ins with the court, surrender of your passport, a prohibition on leaving the area, a financial guarantee, electronic monitoring — or, as the most severe measure, pretrial detention (prisión preventiva). For a defined list of serious offenses, pretrial detention applies by default; for everything else the defense argues for the least restrictive measure, with evidence of your ties, address and low flight risk.
Two more differences worth understanding early. First, there are no juries: since the 2016 reform, Mexico uses an oral, adversarial system where professional judges hear the evidence and decide. Second, many non-serious cases can end without trial through early-resolution mechanisms — a reparatory agreement with the victim or a conditional suspension of the process — which for a foreign defendant often matters more than the theoretical maximum penalty. Details of our criminal practice are documented (in Spanish) on the criminal defense services page.
And a warning we repeat because it saves people: anyone who tells you that money handed over quietly will “make the case disappear” is either defrauding you or involving you in bribery — a second crime on top of the first accusation.
A bar fight, a dispute with a neighbor, an argument that got physical. In Mexico these are usually prosecuted as lesiones (injuries), and many first-time, non-serious cases can end early through a reparatory agreement with the victim — compensation in exchange for closing the case. Whether that door is open depends on the injuries and how the first hours were handled.
Mexico City runs permanent breathalyzer checkpoints (Conduce sin Alcohol). Failing the test is an administrative infraction — typically 20 to 36 hours of civic arrest at the sanctions center known as El Torito, plus the vehicle impound — not a criminal case. It becomes criminal when there are injuries, deaths or property damage. Knowing which track you are on determines everything about how to respond.
Mexican federal health law (Ley General de Salud, art. 479) sets a table of maximum personal-use quantities — for example 5 grams of cannabis or 500 milligrams of cocaine. At or below the table, prosecutors are instructed not to bring criminal charges against a user, though you can still be detained while it is verified. Above the table, possession is prosecuted as narcomenudeo. The difference between those outcomes is measured in grams and in how the seizure was documented.
Foreigners are targets for extortion schemes: fake officers demanding cash at the scene, phone calls claiming a relative is detained, threats of planted charges. Paying does not close anything — it marks you as someone who pays. We verify whether any real case exists, respond to the real one if so, and shut down the fake one.
If you were the injured party rather than the accused — an accident, an assault, harm caused by someone else — that is a different path: see our personal injury services in English.
Families outside Mexico usually learn about a detention through a phone call — sometimes a real one, sometimes an extortion script designed for exactly this moment of panic. In order:
Not to callers, not to supposed officials, not to lawyers who guarantee release for a fee before seeing the file. Extortion calls that fake a detention are an industry; verification comes first.
Detentions must be registered. A lawyer in Mexico can locate the detention facility and the case file quickly — and confirm whether there is a real case at all.
Consular officers can visit the detainee, monitor due process and serve as an official record that someone is watching the case.
Ask for the cédula profesional (bar license number) and verify it in the public registry. The first 48 hours shape the case — that is when counsel needs to be in the room.
Óscar Miranda holds a master’s degree in criminal law, litigates criminal cases personally, and keeps a 24-hour line for urgent detentions — because the moment a family can finally reach a lawyer is rarely during office hours.
Not the way you are imagining it. Mexico has no cash-bail or bail-bond industry. A judge decides on precautionary measures (medidas cautelares) — which can include periodic check-ins, passport surrender, a financial guarantee, electronic monitoring or, for certain offenses, pretrial detention. What a defense lawyer does is argue for the least restrictive measure with evidence of your roots and low flight risk. Any lawyer who promises release for a fixed price before seeing the file is describing a bribe, not a legal service.
They must inform you, without delay, of your right to have your consulate notified — that is Article 36 of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, which Mexico has ratified. The notification itself happens at your request. Your consulate can visit you, monitor your treatment and suggest lawyers, but it cannot get you released or interfere in the case. Ask for the notification: it creates a record and a witness.
Yes. If you do not speak or understand Spanish sufficiently, you have the right to an interpreter free of charge at every stage — from the first statement to trial. A statement taken without one when you needed it is a defense argument. Do not sign anything you could not read in a language you understand.
Assume extortion until proven otherwise. Real criminal cases in Mexico do not get resolved through phone calls demanding wire transfers, and legitimate officers do not collect cash to make a case disappear. Do not pay, do not stay on the line taking instructions, and verify independently: call our 24-hour line, and if a relative is supposedly detained, confirm directly with them or with the official detention registry before sending anything.
Not without a defense lawyer present. You have the constitutional right to remain silent, and silence cannot be used against you. Statements signed in the first hours — often in Spanish, sometimes under pressure — are the single most common self-inflicted wound we see in foreigners' case files. Say you want your lawyer and your consulate notified; that is enough.
Yes. Detentions do not happen during office hours, and the first 48 hours decide much of the case. The firm keeps a 24-hour urgent line for detentions and searches — through the urgent-matters page of this site or WhatsApp marked URGENT. Óscar Miranda holds a master's degree in criminal law and personally handles criminal defense matters.
For non-urgent matters, the initial consultation is $2,000 MXN (about $100 USD): a calm, written assessment of where the case stands, what the realistic outcomes are, and a closed quote for the defense. Active detentions go straight to the 24-hour line.
Prefer not to use WhatsApp? Reach us through the contact form — or browse all our services for foreign clients in English.