Mexico City.- A group of people demonstrated outside the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) to demand that it accept the appeal filed by Erick Valencia Salazar, “El 85”, alleged founding leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), against his extradition to the United States.
Around 50 of Valencia’s family members, friends and lawyers demonstrated on Erasmo Castellanos Street, behind the main entrance to the Court, with banners reading “No to the extradition of Erick Valencia Salazar.”
Lawyers Marco Cortés Rodríguez and Geovanny Gutiérrez, who led the protest, said that the alleged CJNG commander has already been tried in Mexico for the same crimes for which the United States intends to bring him to trial, so his extradition would be illegal.
“What would happen if in this second process the Supreme Court does not take up the case and they deny us protection? What would happen if they sent our fellow countryman to the United States? Would they try him in the United States and acquit him again?” Cortés Rodríguez asked.
“We would be talking about 10 lost years of his life. Is this fair? Is the certainty and security of the Mexican State prevailing or are we talking about a failed state of law regarding extradition?”
Gutiérrez said that Mexico should adopt a policy of reciprocity to judge drug traffickers from the United States, Canada and South America here, because no American has been tried in Mexico or whose relatives come to a federal prison and suffer the same as our Mexicans in the United States.
“El 85” was arrested on March 9, 2012 by the Army in the Lomas Altas neighborhood in Zapopan, Jalisco, an action that unleashed a series of drug blockades and attacks on public transportation, resulting in 25 vehicles being burned.
The alleged drug trafficker was acquitted in 2017 by the federal courts and left the Altiplano prison, but in 2018 his arrest was ordered in the United States and a provisional detention order for extradition purposes was processed with the Mexican authorities.
The United States has requested the extradition of Valencia Salazar to be tried in the Federal Court of the District of Columbia in Washington on charges of participating in illegal gambling and conspiracy to import and distribute cocaine.
The indictment details that from 2003 to August 2018, even before the CJNG name was created, “El 85” was part of a criminal group that distributed large quantities of cocaine in the United States.
On September 4, 2022, the alleged CJNG operator was arrested again in Tapalpa, Jalisco, based on the US request and has since been held in the Altiplano prison.
On August 16, 2023, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs granted his extradition to the United States and “El 85” filed an appeal against that decision.
On February 27, Alfonso López Moreno, fifth judge of the District and Federal Trials of the State of Mexico, denied the protection of justice to the Jalisco native against the extradition order issued by the Foreign Ministry.
Against this decision, Valencia’s lawyers filed an appeal for review which was referred to a Criminal Collegiate Court in Toluca and then asked that court to refer the appeal for review of the protection to the First Chamber of the Court, so that it can resolve the extradition in the last instance.
The lawyers said they expect the SCJN to decide whether to accept the appeal by December at the latest.
If this is not done, the case will be returned to the court of the State of Mexico, which will decide definitively whether or not “El 85” is handed over to the United States.
#demand #Court #decide #extradite #founder #CJNG
