Freedom seen for 2nd Mexican drug lord
MEXICO CITY—Defense attorneys believe freedom is imminent for a second member of the trio of Mexican drug kingpins responsible for the 1985 slaying of a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent, one of the capo’s attorneys said on Saturday.
In the United States, outrage grew over this week’s surprise decision to overturn Mexican drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero’s conviction in the notorious killing.
Caro Quintero walked free on Friday after a federal court overturned his 40-year sentence in agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena’s kidnapping, torture and murder. The three-judge appeals court in the western state of Jalisco ordered Caro Quintero’s immediate release on procedural grounds after 28 years behind bars, saying he should have originally been prosecuted in state instead of federal court.
Also imprisoned in the Camarena case are Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo and Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo, two of the founding fathers of modern Mexican drug trafficking, whose cartel based in the northwestern state of Sinaloa later split into some of Mexico’s largest drug organizations.
Fonseca Carrillo’s attorney, Jose Luis Guizar, said his team had filed an appeal based on the same procedural grounds used by Caro Quintero, and expected him to be freed within 15 days by a different court in Jalisco.
“The appeal is about to be resolved. We believe that the judges will stick to the law,” Guizar said. “Fonseca Carrillo should already be on the street. He should be at home. At its base, the issue is the same as Rafael’s. ”
He said he had not spoken to Felix Gallardo’s attorneys about their expectations for that case. Mexican officials did not respond to calls seeking comment on Saturday.
Tensions rise
Camarena’s murder escalated tensions between Mexico and the United States to perhaps their highest level in recent decades, with the Reagan administration nearly closing the border to exert pressure on a government with deep ties to the drug lords whose cartel operated with near impunity throughout Mexico.
The US Department of Justice said on Friday that it found the Mexican court’s decision to free Caro Quintero “deeply troubling,” but former DEA agents said they were pessimistic that the Obama administration would bring similar pressure to bear.
Nearly 20 years after the enactment of the North American Free Trade Agreement, US-Mexico trade exceeds $1 billion a day. The two countries have worked closely against drug cartels over the last seven years, with the United States sending billions in equipment and training in exchange for wide ac- cess to Mexican law-enforcement agencies and intelligence.
The United States said little last year after Mexican federal police opened fire on a US Embassy vehicle, wounding two CIA officers in one of the most serious attacks on US personnel since the Camarena slaying. Twelve police officers were detained in the case but there is no public evidence that the United States or Mexico pursued suspicions that the shooting was a deliberate attack by corrupt police working on behalf of organized crime.
“I’m sure there’s going to be a lot of complaints about it but do we have a Department of Justice that’s going to stand up for this right now? I don’t think so,” said Edward Heath, who ran the DEA’s Mexico office during the Camarena killing. “Everybody’s happy, businesswise. Trade is fine, everybody is content.”
US access restricted
President Enrique Pena Nieto, who took office last December, has been restricting US access as part of a broader shift in Mexican law-enforcement strategy from taking down cartel chiefs to reducing daily violence, particularly extortion, kidnapping and homicide. That shift has raised doubts in Washington about Mexico’s ongoing commitment to fighting drug trafficking, doubts that grew stronger Saturday after Caro Quintero marked his second full day as a free man, with no public sign of his whereabouts.
The US government alleged as recently as June that Caro Quintero continued to run an extensive drug ring from behind bars, working with the Sinaloa cartel to move drugs and launder the proceeds through a string of front businesses.
Congressman Henry Cuellar, a Texas Democrat who closely follows Mexican politics, said Pena Nieto’s government appeared to have been caught off guard by the decision to free Caro Quintero, but the capo’s liberation was nonetheless a blow to relations with Washington.