Police, prosecutors and forensic examiners within the northern Mexico state of Sinaloa all conspired to cowl up the killing of an opponent of the ruling-party state governor, utilizing a blood-stained truck discovered on the crime scene, federal prosecutors stated Sunday.
The bombshell assertion by federal prosecutors backs up the model of imprisoned drug lord Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada. Zambada claims he was compelled aboard an airplane on July 25 by one other drug capo who flew them each to america and turned them in to U.S. authorities.
Zambada stated in a letter in August that Héctor Cuén, an opponent of ruling-party Gov. Ruben Rocha, was murdered on July 25 on the identical time and the identical ranch the place Zambada was kidnapped. Federal prosecutors revealed Sunday that Cuén’s blood was certainly discovered on the ranch.
Gov. Rocha has not responded publicly to Sunday’s assertion by prosecutors, however he has stated previously that Cuén was killed by gunmen in a random botched theft at a gasoline station miles away later that day, and Sinaloa state prosecutors confirmed safety digicam footage of the alleged assault.
However federal prosecutors rapidly famous one thing was mistaken with that video: autopsy information confirmed Cuén’s physique had 4 gunshot wounds, whereas just one gunshot might be heard on the safety digicam footage, and gasoline station workers stated they did not hear any.
Cuén’s bullet-ridden physique couldn’t assist remedy the riddle, as a result of Sinaloa officers violated all homicide investigation guidelines by permitting the physique to be cremated virtually instantly.
The gasoline station footage was later proved to be a falsification, however one thing concerning the white pickup truck seen within the footage was actual: it had the blood of certainly one of Zambada’s trusted bodyguards within the cargo mattress.
Elizabeth Williams / AP
That implied that Sinaloa state police, crime scene investigators and prosecutors both discovered the bodyguard’s corpse within the truck and removed the physique, or at very least took the blood-stained car from against the law scene to pretend a gunpoint theft on the gasoline station.
“The entire above confirms the police and prosecution investigation that has confirmed the presumed administrative and felony tasks of Sinaloa police, detectives, forensic examiners and state prosecutors who’ve been exhaustively investigated concerning their participation within the demise of Héctor (Cuén)” the federal Lawyer Basic’s Workplace stated in a press release Sunday.
The information seems to complicate additional the place of Gov. Rocha, who belongs to President Claudia Sheinbaum’s ruling Morena Celebration. Sheinbaum has strongly backed Rocha up to now. However Rocha has completed little or nothing to quell the bloody preventing that broke out between the rival factions of the 2 Sinaloa drug cartel capos that broke out after July 25.
As an alternative, Rocha has sought to downplay the gunbattles, killings, kidnappings and cartel roadblocks which have sprung across the state capital, Culiacan. On Thursday, hours earlier than gunmen opened fireplace on the workplaces of an area newspaper, Gov. Rocha stated “there’s nothing to fret about” and “every little thing is below management.”
Rocha – a detailed affiliate of former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who left workplace Sept. 30 – has been implicated within the occasions of July 25 from the beginning, although he denies it.
Zambada has stated that JoaquÃn Guzmán López – a pacesetter of a rival cartel faction who he nonetheless trusted – had invited him to the assembly to assist iron out the fierce political rivalry between Gov. Rocha and Cuén, who had been feuding.
Zambada was well-known for eluding seize for many years due to his extremely tight, loyal and complex private safety equipment. However he stated that on July 25, he left most of his safety staff behind and entered with solely two bodyguards as a result of he anticipated each Cuén and Gov. Rocha to be current.
The 2 bodyguards haven’t been heard from since.
The truth that Zambada would knowingly depart all his safety behind to fulfill with the politicians suggests he seen such a gathering as credible and possible. The identical goes for the concept that Zambada, because the chief of the oldest wing of the Sinaloa cartel, may act as an arbiter within the state’s political disputes.
Rocha has denied he knew of or attended the assembly the place Zambada was kidnapped, claiming he had borrowed a businessman’s personal jet to fly to California that day. However whereas a flight file of that airplane exists, Rocha has by no means proven the immigration paperwork he would have filed to enter america, resulting in doubts that he was aboard the airplane.
Zambada pleaded not responsible final month in a U.S. drug trafficking case that accuses him of participating in homicide plots and ordering torture.
The perceived betrayal of Zambada has led to fierce preventing between his followers, often known as “Mayitos,” and the followers of Guzmán López, who – as one of many sons of imprisoned drug lord JoaquÃn “El Chapo” Gúzman – was a co-leader of the faction often known as the “Chapitos.”
In accordance with an indictment launched by the U.S. Justice Division final yr, the “Chapitos” and their cartel associates used corkscrews, electrocution and scorching chiles to torture their rivals whereas a few of their victims had been “fed lifeless or alive to tigers.” El Chapo’s sons had been amongst 28 Sinaloa cartel members charged in a large fentanyl-trafficking investigation introduced in April 2023.
El Chapo is serving a life sentence in a most safety jail in Colorado after being convicted in 2019 on fees together with drug trafficking, cash laundering and weapons-related offenses.
