Mexican drug lord Hector Palma Salazar, nicknamed “Güero”, who is the subject of the world-famous TV series “Narcos: Mexico”, was released by the Court of Appeal Judge Maria Dolores Olarte, which was blocked with an arrest warrant issued by a different court. It has been announced that Salazar, who co-founded and led the Sinaloa Cartel together with Joaquin Guzman, nicknamed El Chapo, will continue to be held in the high-security Altitlan Prison in the Mexican state. The new arrest warrant for Salazar was made by Cecilia Crockman, a Hidalgo State Judicial District Court official, after Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office (FGR) charged Salazar with qualified murder.
Judge Olarte, in his decision to release Salazar, who has been detained for 28 years, cited the unfounded, incomplete and unsupportable evidence presented by prosecutors in allegations that the suspect was involved in organized crime.
Salazar, who was involved in drug trafficking in Mexico in the 80s and 90s, was arrested by Mexican security forces in 1995 after his plane crashed. Salazar was later extradited to the United States by Mexican authorities in 2007, and was sent back in 2016 to be handed over to Mexican judicial authorities. Released by a court order in May 2021, Salazar was re-captured and imprisoned two months later, to be kept in custody until two missing witnesses who testified about his involvement in organized crime were found. (UAV)