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Among the many drug trafficking legends created by the people in the violent Mexican state of Sinaloa, Hector “El Guero” Palma tops the list as one of the most ruthless and powerful drug traffickers of the country ... and he is just two months away from being released from jail in the United States. Story has it he witnessed the murder of his father at age 15 and a few years later became one of Mexico's most feared assassins after taking full revenge of his father's death.
EXCLUSIVE:
El Chapo Will Escape or Be Killed in Jail
The U.S. federal Bureau of Prisoners has revealed that on June 11 El Guero will have favorably purged his sentence after 19 years in jail and therefore will be released.
The infamous drug lord, who ran the Sinaloa Cartel for many years along with Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman will be handed over to U.S. immigration officials by marshals at Atwater prison in northern California to be escorted to Mexico, where he will be delivered to officials from the federal Attorney General's office, or PGR.
He will then be immediately released and according to many experts, including DEA's Mike Vigil, the 55-year-old drug trafficker will again do the only thing he's good at: drug trafficking and killing.
A spokesperson for U.S. Department of Immigration said, “Once he is released ... he will be taken to Mexicali and the border with Calexico and handed over to PGR agents.”
In Mexico, according to authorities, he already purged the 12-year sentence handed down to him for illegal possession of military weapons and false documents, and drug trafficking.
“But Guero Palma's problem is he is the type of person that loves power, and so what is expected of him is that he immediately meets with his old allies and return to the business,” said Vigil, a retired DEA official and author of the book entitle “Deal,” in which he talks about the Sinaloa Cartel operations.
The DEA refused to comment on Vigil's statements calling them mere speculation, although the agency did make it clear they would not persecute El Guero after his release unless he returns to the business of drugs.
Palma faces a few problems, however, upon his return to Mexico, because another of Mexico's biggest drug traffickers, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, who is said to be a traitor himself, will not trust El Guero since he is believed to have been part of the FBI's Witness Protection Program.
Lawyers came out in defense of Palma saying his “sentence in the United States was reduced because of good conduct and not because he cooperated with U.S. agents,” according to his defense attorney Frank Rangen.
All those who truly know how drug trafficking works in Mexico, are fully aware that El Guero never stopped having power and never quit doing business, not even when inside jail both in Mexico and the United States.
One of his main drug operatives is his cousin Sergio Palma, who was responsible for massive shipments of cocaine, marijuana, crystal and meth for El Guero. He mainly used the border with Arizona and found the Indian reservations along the line with Mexico to be an extremely efficient way to get drugs into the U.S.
Before being arrested in June 23, 1995, after miraculously surviving the crash of his private jet in Jalisco, Palma was one of the DEA's most sought after drug traffickers. The DEA put a US$5 million reward on him.
El Chapo and El Guero, as many other drug traffickers, had many businesses with former President Carlos Salinas de Gortari. El Guero, in particular, had a private charter jet business with Salinas' sister Adriana.
Writer and journalist Diego Enrique Osorno included an interview with Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo, also one of Mexico's most powerful and infamous drug lords in his book “El Cartel de Sinaloa.” Felix told Osorno that the true leader of the Sinaloa Cartel was in fact Carlos Salinas.
First it was Rafael Caro Quintero, a multi-billionaire drug trafficker who offered to pay Mexico's foreign debt (tens of billions of dollars) when arrested in 1985, who was released in 2013 by a judge, who was later accused of negligence by authorities who ordered the drug kingpins recapture, which will never happen. And now El Guero. So, a few drug lords get arrested, but a few more are released, which means the Sinaloa Cartel is as strong as it has always been with powerful leadership at its top.
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