On June 21, the Secretary of National Defense (Sedena), the National Guard (GN) and the Attorney General of the State (FGE) of Guanajuato detained the mother of José Antonio Yépez. She was one of 29 people detained in the operation that Mexican authorities carried out that weekend in Guanajuato and that triggered roadblocks with burning cars.
Mexico City, June 28 (However) .- Maria Eva “N”, mother of the leader of the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel, José Antonio Yépez Ortiz, “The Brown”, was released this Sunday for lack of evidence. The woman was one of 31 detained in an operation by federal and state authorities carried out on June 20 in Guanajuato.
The hearing was held at the Cereso de Pentecillas, in Guanajuato, and started last Saturday, June 27 at around noon.
However, after more than 12 hours, Judge Paulina Iraís Medina Manzano determined not to link María Eva “N” and four other people to the process, considering that the Attorney General of the State of Guanajuato (FGE) did not provide the necessary evidence to support the accusations of drug dealing.
With the Judge’s decision, there is no longer any detainee for the operation carried out on June 20 by elements of the Ministry of National Defense (Sedena), the National Guard and the FGE against the alleged members of the Santa Cartel Lima rose.
The hearing was held at Cereso de Pentecillas, in Guanajuato, and began last Saturday, June 27, around noon. Photo: Dark Quarter.
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María “N” ‘s lawyer assured that justice was done, “we do not convince, the evidence is that presented and a decision was made,” he told the media.
“We know that torture is a crime and the judge is not an investigator. She found rational evidence to believe that there was torture and gave the Prosecutor’s Office to initiate that investigation, therefore she devalued all other elements and then acted accordingly” he added.
He explained that one of the elements that led the judge to dismiss the charges was that there was evidence of torture against the detainees.
At the same time, the defense of María Eva managed to prove anomalies in the operation carried out on June 20, among them they demonstrated that their clients were planted 2 million pesos in cash; in addition to being detained without a search warrant.
The lawyer of the mother of “El Marro”. Photo: Free Zone.
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The reports indicate that the defense also managed to demonstrate that María Eva “N” was not detained in the house released by the authorities, but in the home of one of her daughters.
On June 23, 26 of the people detained in the operation were released, after they could not be accredited for their participation in the crime of drug dealing. Seven of them were minors.
That same day, the FGE reported that it was continuing to integrate the investigation folder to accuse the mother and cousin of “El Marro” of drug dealing and organized crime.
Hours later, the accused and three people were presented to Judge Medina Manzano, who credited his detention as legal.
The trial hearing began at noon on June 23, however, it was suspended due to the absence of an expert who would provide evidence to the case.
The mother “El Marro” is the third relative close to the criminal leader detained by the Mexican authorities; although they only spent a few hours in prison.
Previously, his father, identified as Rodolfo “N”, had also been insured by state police when driving a car with a theft report; however, he was released, after he paid a bond of 10,000 pesos by proving that he was part of the vulnerable population to COVID-19 when he was over 60 years old.
Last January, his wife, Karina, was arrested in the San Miguel Octopan community, within the municipality of Celaya, although days later she was released because a judge deemed her detention illegal.
THE DETENTION
On June 20, the Secretary of National Defense (Sedena), the National Guard (GN) and the FGE of Guanajuato detained José Antonio Yépez’s mother. She was one of the 31 people insured in the operation that Mexican authorities carried out in Guanajuato and that triggered roadblocks with burning cars.
In a joint statement, Sedena, the National Guard and the FGE confirmed that “among the detainees are María ‘N’, Juana ‘N’ and Rosalba ‘N’, alleged financial operators of the criminal organization; fact that caused various attacks on the communication channels, so that the authorities immediately went to the affected points in order to free up traffic and ensure the safety of the population. “
Hours earlier, “El Marro” had released two videos accusing the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel (CJNG) and the authorities of arresting his mother. However, the authorities explained that the arrests occurred while a search warrant was carried out with the support of military personnel in a building located in the town of San Isidro Elguera, Celaya.
THE PARENT IS RELEASED
During the morning of June 26, the father of “El Marro”, Rodolfo “N”, was released after paying a bond of 10,000 pesos, after justifying that he was part of the population at risk of falling ill with COVID-19 if he was transferred to prison, when he was over 60 years old.
Rodolfo remained in prison for three and a half months, after members of the National Guard detained him at a roadblock on a highway in Guanajuato.
The father of “El Marro” was detained aboard a vehicle with a report of theft and false plates, and was therefore charged with petty theft.
According to the Guanajuato Penal Code, said crime is not serious, so he could be released from prison after posting bail.
However, Rodolfo was complying with the preventive detention measure ordered by a federal judge on March 10.
WHO IS “EL MARRO”?
José Antonio Yépez Ortiz, alias “El Marro”, is the leader of the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel and one of those responsible for the increasing violence that has plagued the state of Guanajuato for more than a year. In addition to leading a tough fight against the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel in that region, he is one of the men most persecuted by the Mexican authorities.
“El Marro” was born in the province of Santa Rosa de Lima, in the municipality of Villagrán, state of Guanajuato. Although it is not clear how he entered crime, his name became famous in the Mexican media scene in 2017, when a video went viral where he appears in the company of dozens of armed men threatening the CJNG.
His criminal record includes a 2008 arrest for robbery and organized crime, although he apparently did not serve his sentence after being released after paying a high sum for his bail.
In 2014 he ventured into fuel theft as a lieutenant to David Figueroa, alias “El Güero”, former director of the Chiapas Preventive State Police, who is identified as a founding member of the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel.
By 2017, Yépez had already assumed command of the organization and began to gain notoriety after the conflict with the CJNG escalated for control of the fuel theft or “huachicoleo” business.
“El Marro” during a video in which he demanded the release of his mother. Image: Screenshot.
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Since then, and unlike other Huachicolero leaders who maintain a lower profile, “El Marro” has become one of the leading names in the Mexican underworld despite the merely local nature of its organization.
Its notoriety caused the Mexican authorities to declare war on the CSRL, so in 2019 President Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced the creation of a joint operation against Huachicol in order to dismantle the organization.
Although the authorities have been following him since then, “El Marro” has managed to escape from various operatives in search of his capture. In March of last year, when the authorities forcibly entered the town of Santa Rosa de Lima following his trail, he managed to escape through a series of tunnels that connected his house with neighboring homes. A similar operation was unsuccessful in October.
His arrest has been hindered in part by the protection provided by various communities throughout Guanajuato, which have led to protests and roadblocks to stop the advance of military operations against him.
Since the fight against Huachicol was declared, several assets have been confiscated and several members of his close circle, including his father and wife, have been captured, to which El Marro has responded with violent manifestations of power, such as the murder. of local public officials and constant blockades.
As head of the CSRL, El Marro directs illegal hydrocarbon extraction operations in the state of Guanajuato, the cartel’s center of operations.
It is estimated that the organization can extract 40 to 50 pipes of gasoline daily from the pipes of the national company Pemex. This would represent a profit of up to $ 1.5 million a day.
The seizure of several fleets of fuel barrels, pick-up trucks fitted out to transport hydrocarbons, and more than 200 cars, is a sign of the organization’s purchasing power.
In the wake of the 2019 state onslaught against huachicoleo, which included the freezing of the group’s finances, the CSRL has been forced to expand its criminal portfolio, profiting from other activities such as kidnapping, hiring and extortion.
-With information from EFE, InSight Crime and Zona Franca.
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