Mexico Set to Release Another Major Drug Trafficker

A Mexican federal court has ruled in favor of the notorious drug kingpin Ernesto “Don Neto” Fonseca granting him the benefit of house arrest for the last 10 years of a 40-year prison sentence in the torture and death of a U.S. anti-drug agent.

Fonseca, now 85 years old, is awaiting the ruling of an appeal filed by federal prosecutors asking he not be released.

The former leader of the Guadalajara cartel is also from Sinaloa, considered to be the cradle of about 80 percent of Mexico's drug traffickers. Fonseca is from the same Sinaloan municipality – Badiraguato – as Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.

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In late 2013, Rafael Caro Quintero was released from jail, causing the uproar of the U.S. government, who had asked that he be extradited when he completed his term in a Mexican prison.

Soon after, the Mexican authorities issued an arrest warrant against Caro Quintero.

Caro Quintero had been detained and sentenced in connection with the murder of U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) agent Enrique Camarena Salazar. After his arrest, the drug lord offered to pay the Mexican foreign debt in a year if released. The country's foreign debt was just under US$90 billion in 1985.

Fonseca and Caro Quintero founded the Guadalajara cartel along with Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo, who is also from Badiraguato. Gallardo is still in jail, but in Sinaloa experts and other drug traffickers assure Gallardo operates from prison through his lawyers, employees and family.

Gallardo is also the uncle of the Tijuana cartel bosses, the Arellano Felix brothers.

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Fonseca is the uncle of the infamous Amado Carrillo Fuentes, also known as the “Lord of the Skies” because he was reportedly the first drug trafficker to use a large fleet of Boeing 747s to transport hundreds of tons of cocaine from Colombia to Mexico.

Carrillo Fuentes was allegedly murdered in July 1997, although many say he is still alive. His cousin Sergio Carrillo recently told teleSUR, “Amado is fine. He is alive. He had surgery and also had surgery practiced on some poor unfortunate person to make everybody believe it was him, including the authorities.”

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Fonseca's lawyers said they expect the federal attorney general's office's (PGR) appeal will fail and that they are only waiting for the authorities to determine where the cartel boss will complete the last 10 years of his sentence under house arrest.

The Mexican penal code allows for house arrest to be granted to the elderly or sick, which is the case on both grounds for Fonseca. According to his lawyers, if his house arrest request were to be denied, it would violate the law.

Two years ago, the federal court denied him the benefit of house arrest.