In between the Mexican Government's negligence
and the United States' leniency
The extraditions of three prominent drug traffickers that operated from Ciudad Juárez and the border-adjacent Juárez Valley prove that turning in Mexican criminals to the United States does not serve justice to crime victims instead becomes an alternative for drug lords to clear their criminal records and achieve freedom.
La Verdad
By Rocío Gallegos, Gabriela Minjares and Blanca Carmona / La Verdad
In collaboration with Ramón Bracamontes / El Paso Matters
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Along the South Texas border, less than 250 miles from the place where he was initially detained to be extradited to the United States, Óscar Alonso Candelaria Escajeda, the Mexican drug trafficker who was once one of the most wanted criminals by American authorities, was released.
Ciudad Juárez
The leader of the Los Escajeda, the criminal organization responsible for subjugating residents of the Juárez Valley to drug trafficking, and causing severe political conflict between Mexico and the U.S., was freed before completing half of his 27-year sentence, on March 4, 2021, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
The U.S. justice system reduced his time in prison without releasing him back to Mexico, as established in the Extradition Treaty between Mexico and the U.S., ignoring his criminal history in Chihuahua, where he was persecuted and detained by the Mexican National Secretary of Defense with the help of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. No U.S. authority was willing to answer questions about his release.
An investigation by La Verdad in collaboration with El Paso Matters examined the judicial process of the arrest and extradition to the U.S. de Candelaria Escajeda, “La Gata,” his brother, José Rodolfo Escajeda Escajeda, “Riquín,” and José Antonio Acosta Hernández, “El Diego.”
For years, these three drug lords ordered massacres, forced disappearances, and displacement in Ciudad Juárez and the Juárez Valley in Chihuahua. The three cases, which exhibit waiving of punishment and banishment of justice for their victims, were analyzed through interviews, information obtained from transparency requests, and official documents from Mexico and the U.S.
“We expect justice,” said a man whose brother and his family were murdered by Óscar Alonso in the Juárez Valley. His extradition did not serve justice for all the murderers he committed.
“There is a false idea that extraditions bring justice.”
~Adriana Muro Polo,executive director of Elementa DDHH
The regional human rights multidisciplinary group follows extradition cases for drug crimes committed in Mexico and Colombia.
There is a belief that this international legal proceeding brings justice, truth, and reparations to the victims, which cannot be performed by the judicial system, and this will stop criminals from doing more harm, said Muro Polo. However, some of the victims of these criminal organizations understand extraditions are false claims of justice.
Official records show Mexico extradited 1,389 people to the U.S. from 2000 until June 1, 2022. Two out of every five cases occurred during the Mexican Drug War under the administration of former President Felipe Calderón.
“The objective of the U.S. judicial system, specifically that of criminal law proceedings on the war on drugs, is not to bring justice, but to capture the biggest drug lord, and then negotiate these anticipated discharges,” said Renata Demichelis Ávila, director for Elementa DDHH in Mexico.
Forgotten Victims
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“How could one be satisfied with this? I know I am not satisfied,” said a man who lost four family members at the hands of Óscar Alonso’s criminal organization in the town of Guadalupe. “I heard he was released from jail… he was named a protected witness.”
The man, who asked not to reveal his identity for fear of La Gata being out, said now that the crime leader accepted a settlement for his discharge, he “hopes there is justice [done]” for the murder of his family.
Obtaining justice is rare for the families of those whose lives were taken by the extradited murderers, as agreements between the U.S. and the detainees, such as the one alleged by Óscar Alonso, consider returning them to their country. Additionally, Mexican authorities do not enforce following up on subsequent proceedings of their liberation.
"Governments make agreements among themselves. Yes, at the end of the day, their last concern is victims - they forget about the human aspect of crime.”
- Blanca Martínez, wife of murdered journalist Armando Rodríguez Carreón.Said Blanca Martínez, wife of Armando Rodríguez Carreón, a journalist whose murder was ordered on November 2008 by José Antonio Acosta Hernández. The investigation linking the leader of the drug trafficking organization La Línea, to Rodríguez Carreón's homicide was led by Mexico's Prosecutor's Office for Special Crimes against Freedom of Speech Division.
Acosta Hernández, also known as El Diego, was extradited to the U.S. in 2012, despite this ongoing investigation and criminal charges still open in Mexico. He was also named the intellectual author of Rodríguez Carreón's murder by the Prosecutor's Office.
The former member of the Mexican Federal Ministerial Police was already imprisoned for three years in the U.S., where he was extradited and sentenced for the homicide of an American official from the U.S. Consulate in Ciudad Juárez, her husband, and the husband of another diplomatic employee as they left a children’s party.
El Diego’s legal status prompted the Mexican Prosecutor’s Office to inform that the apprehension order for the homicide of Armando Rodríguez was still “open and to be carried out - through extradition.”
The legal complexity of justice proceedings is overwhelming for Blanca and other victims that La Verdad spoke to.
"The extradited criminals may be imprisoned [in the U.S.] but for other crimes. In my husband’s case, justice was never realized or fell through the cracks."
Blanca Martínez,wife of murdered journalist, Armando Rodríguez Carreón.
Not recognizing the truth behind the blood-shed crimes is the direct consequence of political injustice, according to Renata Demichelis, director of Elementa DDHH in Mexico. Not indicating the specific role of those indicted, the reason behind the murders and disappearances they ordered or committed also does away with avoiding further crime and establishing legal precedents.
There is evidence that the possibility that extradited criminals are thoroughly investigated in another country and sanctioned in Mexico is voided, according to Demichelis.
“We must accept that the chances of accessing justice in Mexico are empty at the moment, and this is probably the most frustrating out of everything,” she said.
The three extradition cases analyzed in this investigation occurred during the Mexican “War on Drugs” under the Calderón administration and the United States anti-drug policies, intending to capture drug cartel leaders to stop the trafficking of drugs and the violence related to it.
The findings show one of the cases reached a sentence reduction to be included under a program operating under an automatic selection of cases, which according to authorities, does not take into consideration if the beneficiaries were part of the country’s most wanted criminals and a drug trafficking leader . It also established that another extradited criminal applied for a reduced sentence twice, the last request being in March 2022, which was declined. Only one of the capos was given life imprisonment.
When the sentences assigned to an extradited criminal are completed in the U.S., they are deported to Mexico. The Mexican Ministries at general and state levels are notified of the transportation of these criminals by the U.S. Department of Justice when accusations against these are official, according to Michael S. Vigil, former Chief of International Operations in charge of all Drug Enforcement (DEA.)
“It all depends on the accusations and criminal records of the person being extradited,” said Vigil. “If there are no accusations, you cannot take action. They are simply deported to Mexico.”
It is common for defense attorneys to come to agreements with U.S. federal prosecutors and have their clients contribute valuable information for other trials and investigations.
“If extradited criminals decide to collaborate with the federal government in giving testimony in the trial of another drug trafficker in the United States, they can be protected as witnesses.”
~Michael S. Vigil,former Chief of International Operations in charge of all Drug Enforcement~
This was the case in Óscar Alonso’s trial, and his brother seeks the same agreement. The siblings, like Acosta Hernández, were surrendered to the U.S. Government as if they were people without any criminal history in Mexico.
“This isn’t fair for anyone,” said María Guadalupe Ortiz Collazo, sister of physician José Guillermo Ortiz Collazo. He was a fatal victim of the car bomb set off in Ciudad Juárez in 2010 and was publicly attributed to José Antonio Acosta Hernández by authorities.
Calderón Hinojosa’s Administration publicly denounced Acosta Hernández as the mastermind of that blast, which gathered international attention because of the 10 kilograms (22 pounds) of Tovex explosives used.
Yet, La Verdad could not find any files on investigating this incident through public information requests to the Attorney General's Office and Chihuahua General State Ministry. The negligence of how the attack was handled feels as if the case was already archived by authorities, said the victims.
“I ponder how he was extradited because it was so quick. I believe he was simply surrendered without due process. That is the ultimate law. There is justice for no one.”
~María Guadalupe Ortiz Collazo,sister of murdered physician José Guillermo Ortiz Collazo.~
This feeling is shared by Luz María Dávila, mother to Jorge Luis and Marcos Piña Dávila, two of the 15 victims of the massacre that occurred on January 30, 2010, at a house in the neighborhood Villas de Salvárcar in Ciudad Juárez, and for which was Acosta Hernández named the mastermind.
“I don’t agree that he was sent to the U.S.,” she said about Acosta Hernández. “Authorities chose to send him so they would not have to process his case here.”
Throughout his imprisonment in Mexico, Diego was never tried by state or federal courts as they declined due to concerns of jurisdiction and security. The case was “fortunately” discreetly handled and resulted in extradition, according to the then judge and former 2018 Chihuahua State Judge, Pablo Héctor González Villalobos.
“If live information of the judicial proceedings had reached the media outlets, even the life of the judge becomes at risk, as it happens in Colombia, where every time there was a case of extradition, the first person to be murdered was the judge,” said González Villalobos.
“The best way to stop them [criminals] from harming others is to send them over to the other side [of the border.]”
This deceiving image of power and politics makes the survivors of these crimes question the country’s pursuit of justice.
“Justice in our country is merely a myth,” said Julián LeBarón, a crime survivor turned activist who continues to seek justice for what happened to his family. He suffered the bloody crime wave at the peak of the drug war while living in the northwest part of Chihuahua, where he lost his brother Benjamín and his brother-in-law, Luis Carlos Whitman Stubbs, to murder in July 2009.
The crimes against the LeBarón family were attributed to José Rodolfo Escajeda Escajeda, “El Riquín,” who was extradited to the U.S.
LeBarón traveled through Mexico advocating for the acknowledgment of the victims of the Mexican War on Drugs with the activist group Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity.
“The truth behind the facts in my family’s case was never established, and all the players involved went unpunished. Only the truth can bring justice to the facts.”
~Julián LeBarón, crime survivor.~A weapon against drugs
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The extradition relationship between the U.S. and Mexico, which is over 160 years old, gained relevance during the Mexican Drug War. Documents from 2000 analyzed by this investigation prove Mexico used this proceeding as a weapon.
During this period, the Mexican government turned in the most people requested by the U.S. government, according to files obtained from a public information request to the Mexican Foreign Affairs Ministry.
Photo: Flickr / Creative Commons
1,389 people were extradited from Mexico to the U.S. from 2000 to June 1st, 2022. Some of the extraditions expeditiously, while others took 16 years. Most of the crimes for which their detainment was requested include those linked to drug trafficking and some to the homicide of American citizens.
From 2000 to 2006, the Vicente Fox administration had 216 extraditions, the lowest number since the last two presidential terms and the highest number of denied extradition requests from the U.S. All the cases involved Americans, according to the Mexican Exterior Relations Ministry.
The average number of extraditions during the Felipe Calderón administration was 97, almost three times the number during Fox’s administration. However, this number decreased to an average of 66 extraditions during the Enrique Peña Nieto administration, which recorded 396 extraditions during his six years as president (2012-2018,) according to the Mexican Exterior Relations Ministry.
President Calderón declared war on organized crime during his administration. Thousands of troops were sent to all the streets across the country as a form of militarization through the Coordinated Operation Chihuahua plan. During his term (2006-2012,) 583 drug traffickers were extradited to the U.S., and most were Mexican citizens. This included the Escajeda brothers and Acosta Hernández, detained in Chihuahua.
During his first month in office, there were six extraditions. This number significantly increased in 2007 as a response to the Mérida Initiative, a security cooperation agreement to combat organized crime and drug trafficking between the U.S., Mexico, and several other Central American countries.
The international plan failed to meet its objective of protecting U.S. territory from drug trafficking or ending cartel-generated violence in Mexico, according to a report from the Western Hemisphere Drug Policy Commission.
From 2012 to 2018, during the administration of Enrique Peña Nieto, there were 396 extradited people, and the average number of extraditions per year fell to 66.
Current Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has had a total of 194 extraditions under his term, from its beginning in December 2018 until June 1, 2022. The number of extraditions per year has fluctuated, with 58 extraditions in 2019, 60 in 2020, 43 in 2021, and 29 during the first six months of 2022, a noticed decrease after the Mérida Initiative was replaced with the Mexico-U.S. Bicentennial Framework for Security, Public Health and Safe Communities.
*As of june 2022
U.S. Ambassador to Mexico, Ken Salazar, explains that there is a priority given to extraditions requested by the U.S.
“We are working closely with the Mexican Government to ensure that people we want on this side of the border, who were involved in crimes that affect the U.S., end up on this side. Once they are here, they will serve their time. It is a joint effort,” said Salazar early this year during a visit to Santa Teresa, New Mexico, a city neighboring Ciudad Juárez.
Protections presented by the defense attorneys of the criminals requested by the U.S. have slowed down Extraditions in Mexico in the past months, such are the cases of Rafael Caro Quintero, who was recaptured by Mexican authorities in October 2022, and that of Ovidio Guzmán López, son of drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, who was detained in Sinaloa in January of this year.
Criminal law specialist attorney José Irving Arellano Regino explains that if a person requested for extradition has an open criminal case in Mexico, they must first finish this legal process to be turned in to another country.
This can usually become protection material, generating an obstacle for extradition.
However, he cautions that the decision to turn in criminals is sometimes dictated by political indecency.
There are occasions where the Foreign Affairs Ministry instructs the Attorney General's Office to solicit a judge to interrupt the judicial process or to dictate the measures to avoid this from happening. Even though this should not occur, it is how extradition requests are approved or denied.
Adriana Muro, executive director of Elementa, concurs and points out that extraditions are not only based on a judicial decision but are also used as political weapons by governments.
After the judicial process, the final decision is taken in a discretionary manner by the executive branch or a politician, explained Muro.
Through an information request from La Verdad, the Mexican Foreign Affairs said there are occasions when even though the extradition is definite, the surrendering of the subject cannot be done because they have pending criminal claims on national territory. In these cases, the release is deferred until the Ministry calls for action.
“The right thing to do is for the person to meet their sentence in that country and to be transported to the country requesting the extradition after,” said Arellano Regino. This does not always happen.
Comparison of US - Mexico extraditions from 2000 to 2022
At least 77 people extradited from Mexico since 2008 still have pending criminal processes back in the country.These charges include crime against health, money laundering, organized crime, homicide, gun possession, abduction, and theft, according to the Mexican Ministry.
In response to an information request, Attorney General's Office explained that when extradited criminals from Mexico have a pending criminal case in the country, these are suspended after sentencing.
“Once the extradited individuals complete their sentencing in the U.S., they will be repatriated to Mexican territory to continue the criminal proceedings that were suspended,” said Arellano Regino. This was not the case for La Gata.
La Gata, el Riquín and el Diego
El Diego
Photo: Saúl López /Cuartoscuro
La Gata
Photo: Moisés Pablo / Cuartoscuro
El Riquín
Photo: SEDENA/Cuartoscuro
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There were no existing official reports filed against Óscar Alonso Candelaria Escajeda for the deaths of innocent residents of Ciudad Juárez and the rural communities in the Juárez Valley when he was extradited to the U.S. on April 17, 2009, to confront accusations of drug trafficking.
Candelaria Escajeda is out of prison now. His victims tell their stories in fear and decide to stay anonymous, as they have seen him enjoying his freedom in the streets of Odessa, Texas, a city near the Mexican border towns of Guadalupe and Práxedis G. Guerrero. It was in this area parallel to the Rio Grande where he was head of the criminal organization that transported drugs for years.
The conditions of his release are not public because a majority of the documents that make up the criminal file are sealed under a U.S. judicial order. Records show that judicial authorities ordered to seal his accusation, the orders of arrest, and the documents related to the case since December 2006.
However, on March 2, 2021, a sentence reduction due to a “change of circumstances” gave him his freedom.
Years prior, on October 31, 2014, federal judges of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas El Paso Division informed him that he had access to a sentence reduction program for people with drug charges which had been approved by U.S. legislators.
In 2016, La Gata appealed for a sentence reduction but was denied. In 2011 he successfully appealed an 80-month sentence reduction.
In April 2010, Óscar Alonso was convicted for 325 months (27 years) for drug trafficking. His sentence was reduced, and he served almost 14 years in prison - two years in Mexico City and the rest in the U.S.
Federal Public Defender for the El Paso Division, Edgar Holguin, who represented La Gata in the final stage of his process when he obtained his release, said that even though he cannot talk about this particular case because he does not remember any details, he obtained this legal pardon through a program of sentence reduction.
“We did not go into details because there were too many. More than 1000. We were only trying to allow a reduction for those who qualified. We were not interested in investigating their cases further,” he said.
In an attempt to have an early release like his brother La Gata, José Rodolfo “Riquín” Escajeda Escajeda has resorted to sentence reductions on four different occasions.
Riquín petitioned for a sentence reduction for drug crimes for the first time in June 2015. It was denied in August 2016.
The second time he petitioned for a sentence reduction was in October 2020. He claimed that the COVID-19 pandemic was a health threat and a humanitarian reason for his release. In the handwritten application, he pleaded to be in fear of becoming infected with the virus and said he was ready to rejoin society.
“I would like to let you know that I completely regret my offenses. I ask that you please have compassion on me. The only crimes I committed were two - one is for marijuana, and the other is for cocaine. Marijuana is not deemed harmful anymore, and neither is cocaine,” said the letter.
The petition was declined in October 2020, when he failed to gather medical and penal proof the judge requested from him in response to his petition to be released under humane reasons.
On December 14, 2020, he appealed for a sentence reduction through a different program enacted in 2014. His appeal was denied because his crimes committed were out of range with the level of offenses permitted for the reduction he was already granted.
On January 19, 2022, he appealed the Court’s decision on his third sentence reduction from 2020. His appeal was overruled and considered inadmissible for the long time elapsed between the day of the Court’s decision and the day of his appeal.
His fourth sentence reduction appeal was filed in March 2022. “humanitarian reasons" based on “convincing and extraordinary medical reasons” in fear of being infected with COVID-19 and the high risk due to his suffering from type 2 diabetes, obesity, and a history of substance use of multiple drugs, including tobacco.
In a detailed response, the Court denied its appeal with a detailed response opposing a reduced sentence in June 2022.
In the entrance, it is mentioned that at the time of his appeal, there were no positive cases of the virus at FCI Phoenix, the prison where he was doing his time.
“The fear of COVID-19 does not automatically give the right to be released,” was the argument of the Court. It mentioned that the accused was fully vaccinated and received the booster shot and that the jail had safety measures for stopping the spread of the virus.
The nature of the circumstances and the severity of his crimes reinforced the fairness of the Court’s decision in sentencing a high-ranking member of the Juárez Cartel involved in various illegal activities in the Juárez Valley.
The arguments emphasized the need to protect the public and decrease crimes. Over a decade, he climbed and attempted to mitigate his circumstances by cooperating with the government by signing an affidavit.
Escajeda lacked good behavior while imprisoned. His disciplinary record served as supporting evidence for continuing his incarceration. In 2012, he was sanctioned for refusing to work and possessing a dangerous weapon - a blade on two sticks.
In 2014, he was sanctioned for being in an unauthorized area, and in 2015 for assault resulting in severe injuries and phone abuse for possessing a phone. In essence, the accused has not proved the factors that support the sentence reduction he seeks.
“He continues to be a threat to the public, as he was when he was a high-rank member of the Juárez Cártel."
~U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas El Paso Division in their response to Riquín's fourth attempt to decrease his sentence.~Riquín’s release is scheduled for October 9, 2039.
José Antonio Acosta Hernández, Diego, Blablazo, or Fifteen, as he was referred to by the authorities, worked for the Juárez Cartel, as did Riquín.
El Diego went from being a former state police officer to directing the hitmen working for the Juárez Cartel leaders, the Carrillo Fuentes. He is serving seven life sentences at a penitentiary in Florence, Colorado, in the U.S.
Acosta Hernández surrendered to the U.S. in an operation led by the DEA in El Paso, Texas, in March of 2012, after his arrest in Chihuahua City.
Three weeks later, he pleaded guilty to seven counts of murder and possession of illegal arms that were linked to an attack that killed Leslie Enriquez, an American Consulate official, her husband, Arthur Redelfs, and Jorge Salcido Ceniceros, the husband of another consulate employee, as they were leaving children’s party on March 13, 2010, in Ciudad Juárez.
He also pleaded guilty to drug trafficking, money laundering, and unlawful association charges before U.S. District Federal Judge Kathleen Cardone.
Acosta Hernández did not go to trial for either guilty pleads.
He was identified as the intellectual author of massacres, among them the assassination of 15 students in the Villas del Salvárcar neighborhood, the killing of police officers, the execution of seven federal agents, the homicide of journalist Armando Rodríguez Carreón, the bombing of a car, considered to be a terrorist attack, and an accusation of over 1,500 homicides.
In the country, only one investigation file exists on the case against Acosta Hernández for the death of the employees of the U.S. Consulate, which is currently temporarily archived. He also has a pending indictment for being the intellectual author behind the assassination of journalist Rodríguez Carreón.
For cases like this one, it is vital to question if extraditions translate into justice, said the director of Elementa in Mexico, Renata Demichelis.
“We need to call attention to this,” she said. “As long as nobody talks about this and as long as nobody follows up, we will never know if this works for Mexico.”
~Renata Demichelis,director of Elementa in Mexico.~
Until now, how this system operates allows us to better understand the secrecy, impunity, and lack of access to the truth of the victims in this country, she said.
The Escajedas Territory
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All that remains after drug violence took over the streets of Guadalupe, the birthplace of the Escajeda brothers, is desolation.
Valle de Juárez
There were dozens of houses and opulent mansions left in shambles with the destruction brought by the dispute between the Juárez Cartel and the Sinaloa Cartel over this border territory.
The city of Guadalupe is located in the center of the narrow corridor of farmland known as the Juárez Valley, which runs parallel along the Rio Grande, from the west end of the Municipality of Juárez to the town of Porvenir, in Práxedis G. Guerrero at the southeast end of Juárez.
Photo: Alicia Fernández / La Verdad
The land comprises semiarid areas, hills, and dry green pastures, depending on the season. For decades, the cotton grown in this region was famous for being considered the second-best cotton in the World, following Egyptian cotton.
The drought ruined the soil’s salinity and destroyed a large portion of the agricultural land in the Valley and cotton production, or as they called it, “white gold,” collapsed.
Drug smuggling became the only prosperous activity in this region because of its proximity to the U.S., and that was when extreme violence erupted, and the bloodshed forced habitants to flee their homes.
“There is nothing left from what Guadalupe used to be like,” said a member of the Archuleta family, who, over eight years ago, abandoned their home to survive the narco-violence in the Juárez Valley.
The woman asked to stay anonymous as she still fears for her life. She now resides in the U.S. with the 32 family members she fled with, as many other people from this region had to do because they feared for their lives.
“It was a small town with large families, and everybody knew each other. There was a yearly Cotton Fair, with rides, food, dancing, and handicrafts. It was a tradition where the whole town participated,” said the 32-year-old woman. After the abduction and killing of four family members in December 2014, three of the killings happening in the same year, she saw herself forced to leave her home.
Photo: Alicia Fernández / La Verdad
From the mid-nineties until 2006, the Escajeda brothers were leaders of the criminal group that they named after their mother’s last name.
They had an alliance with the Juárez and Sinaloa cartels in which they crossed marijuana and cocaine to the U.S. for them through the towns surrounding the Juárez Valley. This was when the Federación, an association among various cartels for peaceful drug smuggling, operated in Mexico.
As La Gata led business with the Sinaloa Cartel, his brother José Rodolfo “El Riquín” Escajeda led business with the Juárez Cartel. Both cartels fought over ownership of the lucrative corridor in the Juárez Valley in 2008.
His calm personality and negotiation skills gave La Gata control of the group, as people who lived in the Valley mentioned his brother, Riquín, was known for being aggressive and violent. The brothers got rid of rivals, disassembled city police, some of whom still work as police agents, killed mayors, and transformed the land into a territory of organized crime.
In the Valley, they bought farms, brought exotic animals and expensive trucks, and built mansions along the roads of a town that was never affluent.
Their decline began towards the end of 2005 and the beginning of 2006 when U.S. authorities spotted them in an operation along Neely's Crossing in Hudspeth, Texas, where they worked with heavily armed men dressed as Mexican military.
Photo: Alicia Fernández / La Verdad
The incident occurred in January 2006, when three vehicles driving around along the border, believed to be transporting marijuana, were spotted by Huspeth sheriffs.
The persecution was fully documented with photographs and videos by U.S. authorities. When one of the vehicles became stuck in the Rio Grande River, two Humvees military trucks with heavy machine guns arrived at the scene, and people in uniform carrying weapons exclusively used by the Mexican Army exited the vehicles. Additionally, fifteen men dressed as civilians showed up and were later identified as members of the Escajeda criminal organization, which operated with total impunity.
The alleged participation of Mexican Army personnel in the altercation unleashed a diplomatic conflict that escalated to the U.S. House of Representatives.
Pressured by the U.S., the Mexican Government confirmed that the uniforms, badges, weapons, and vehicles did not correspond to those used by the Mexican Armed Forces and identified brothers Óscar Alonso and José Rodolfo as the leaders of the drug trafficking group.
In a failed attempt to capture the Escajeda brothers, the towns where they operated were besieged by civil and military agents during a binational operation with the collaboration of the DEA. Still, both men managed to escape on time.
Photo: Alicia Fernández / La Verdad
It wasn’t until 2007, after being on the run for over a year, that the Federal Preventive Police detained Óscar Alonso in Ciudad Juárez, and was immediately transported to Mexico City to initiate the extradition requested by the U.S.
Óscar Alonso was surrendered to the U.S. in April 2009 after he pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute over 1,000 kilograms of marijuana (2,200 pounds) and over 5 kilograms (11 pounds) of cocaine in October of the same year.
His brother became the leader, and the bloodshed escalated.
“It wasn’t the same anymore. The town began dining. People from the U.S. stopped crossing over, and people would go home early to avoid the evening,” said Archuleta from exile. “We stopped going out to dances because you never knew what could happen.”
Police officers, mayors, commissioners, political leaders, community activists, and entire families were gunned down on the streets, unleashing a massive exodus of people, mainly from Guadalupe and Práxedis. This joint population decreased more than 50%, from 17,662 to 8,586 residents from 2005 to 2010, after many left for Fabens in south Texas.
Dusty and unpaved streets were empty, as only heavily armed hooded commanders seemed to walk through the ghost town.
Riquín extended his criminal activities to the northeast of Chihuahua, where he was detained on September 4, 2009, and then transported to Mexico City. He was surrendered to the U.S. on December 11, 2010, where he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 429 months (35 years) for conspiracy to import more than 1,000 kilograms (2,200 pounds) of marijuana and 5 kilograms (11 pounds) of cocaine.
Photo: Alicia Fernández / La Verdad
In response to a public information request, the Ministry of Justice of Chihuahua stated that it is not possible to disclose if there are investigation files on the cases or previous penal processes for crimes committed by La Gata and Riquín. This information is reserved, and disseminating information could harm the prosecution.
Confidential sources inside the Ministry said no files were found under those names. In the missing investigations are the cases of the death of the Amaya family, homicides of local government officials, and the massacre inside the rehabilitation center El Aliviane, an incident linked to Riquín.
Neither of the two Mexican authorities that intervene during extraditions, the Foreign Affairs Ministry and the U.S. Attorney General's Office, responded to an interview request.
In Chihuahua, current government officials who were active during the extraditions of the three drug leaders all declined interviews.
Only already public versions of the extradition papers of Óscar Alonso Candelaria Escajeda, José Rodolfo Escajeda Escajeda, and José Antonio Acosta Hernández were sent by the Foreign Affairs Ministry.
The reasons for his extradition were redacted, the argument being that “its disclosure could harm” society. It said that the Foreign Affairs Ministry did not have information to prove that the three men were already sentenced in the U.S., according to a public information request from September 2022.
By then, Óscar Alonso had been free for over a year, and José Rodolfo and José Antonio had served ten years of their sentences.