The Ministry of Foreign Relations (SRE) of Mexico has announced that the Second District Court of Federal Criminal Proceedings in the state of Jalisco ordered this Saturday to release the former leader of the Sinaloa Cartel Héctor Luis Palma Salazar, better known as ‘El Güero Palma’.
The 80-year-old man was acquitted of drug trafficking offenses and his immediate release was ordered, although the Mexican government will verify whether he has no pending cases before releasing him from prison.
‘El Güero Palma’ was exempted from the accusation against him for committing the crime of organized crime.
“The Second District Court of Federal Criminal Proceedings in the State of Jalisco ordered the immediate and absolute freedom of Palma Salazar solely for the crime and the aforementioned causes, although it established that he could remain imprisoned if any other judicial authority was available for different crime “, detailed the Mexican Foreign Ministry in a statement.
Palma Salazar, one of the country’s most violent drug lords in the 1980s and 1990s, was arrested in June 1995 in western Mexico. In 2007, the Mexican Prosecutor’s Office decided to extradite him to the United States, where he was found guilty of cocaine trafficking charges. After being sentenced to 16 years in prison and five years of probation, he was due to leave in 2024.
However, the defendant only served 85% of his sentence and was released for good conduct in 2016. That same year, Mexico was handed over and admitted to the Altiplano prison.
Source: El Universal
