The Quiet Extradition of Mochomo

Borderland Beat posted by Siskiyou_Kid translated and republished from RioDoce

Charges are pending in three different US courts

In a diplomatic move that surprised many, the Mexican Government extradited Alfredo Beltrán Leyva, "El Mochomo" to the United States, who was wanted since 24 August 2012 for drug trafficking, and whose indictment, of just three pages, shows a makeshift document a judicial record that fixes accusations against one who was one of the former leaders of the Sinaloa cartel. 

Contrary to the records of traffickers such as Benjamín Arellano Félix, Joaquín el Chapo Guzmán, Ismael Zambada  El Mayo and Osiel Cárdenas Guillén, the Alfredo Beltran indictment only says that since about the year 2000, he introduced to US territory at least five kilograms of cocaine, in addition to 50 grams of methamphetamine, a kilo of heroin, and approximately a thousand kilos of marijuana. (This is not all that unusual to issue a bare bones indictment before a suspect is in US custody charges will be amended)

According to the civil code of the country, the amounts described above should be sufficient to keep him in prison for life, particularly those related to the judicial sections 959, 960 and 963. 

However striking a paragraph in the indictment, of which Ríodoce have a copy: United States wants from Alfredo Beltran an amount of money still not specified, which must be paid before being sentenced and go free; this as part of the punishment to which they will be subjected. 

The record says that it will take into account profits made by "Mochomo", according to research from the USDOJ, of which depends on the DEA and the FBI, to then determine what amounted their incomes product of drug trafficking, and then seize his properties, assets, either that the same Alfredo Beltran makes payments through a third party transaction say the document, signed by the prosecutors Arthur G. Wyatt and Andrea Goldbarg. 

Brooklyn and Washington, D.C.

Monday November 17, two days after being extradited in the midst of a total stealth, Alfredo Beltrán Leyva was filed with a Federal District Court in Washington, D.C., where it was facing to judge Alan Kay, who after reading accusations for crimes for which he was extradited, the Mocha said to plead not guilty. 

Perhaps judge Kay did not expect such a response, and was for this reason that although initially said the 21 Friday would be the first preliminary hearing, finally canceled it and the date for a new hearing was pending.

No one in the United States Department of Justice (USDOJ) could clarify why the cancellation, or why was first presented in Washington DC, and not in Columbia Ohio, or in Brooklyn New York, where he also faces charges for drug trafficking. 

Ríodoce asked the USDOJ for a copy of the charges faced by "Mochomo" in the districts of New York, Washington DC and Ohio, concluding that all districts were of exactly the same accusation. 
 

According to the code of procedures criminals of United States, title 1, chapter 21, the same charge can be used in different district courts in the country, always and when all these States is typified as a crime charges that a detainee is accused. 

This means that the Mocha will be prosecuted for the same crimes in three different places, as it would happen with capos such as El Chapo Guzman and Ismael Zambada, but unlike them, the accusation against the youngest of the Beltrán Leyva is somewhat ambiguous because it presents no dates, places or accurate amounts of drugs trafficked, as he observed the record 1:12-CR-00184-RJL. 

The waiting

Alfredo Beltrán Leyva was detained in Federal Prison - Central Office HQ, a maximum security prison located in downtown Washington DC. 

For his extradition, it took almost seven years, since that January 21, 2008 in which elements of the Mexican army surprised him inside of a residence of the colonia bureaucrata and seized cash, jewels and weapons, until the moment in which the PGR agents handed him over to agents of the US Marshalls, on the border with the United States. 

Precisely would that capture the trigger for his older brother, Arturo Beltrán Leyva flew to Culiacan to confront "El Chapo" and "El Mayo" over the  arrest of his younger brother, according to documents established by the USDOJ, which in turn would lead to a bloody war for control of the most powerful organization of Mexico. 

Now Mochomo, according to what has happened with other lords, will be confronted with other Sinaloan prisoners who are held in prisons in the United States and at the time agreed to testify in favor of the USDOJ to be faced against members of the Sinaloa cartel, which would strengthen the accusations.

Chapo's mother Doña Consuelo Loera raised the Beltrán Leyva Brothers

The History

Born in 1971 in La Palma, Badiraguato, "El Mochomo" was raised together with his brothers by Doña Consuelo Loera, mother of Joaquín Guzmán, when their mother died, according to people close to the family, they said at the time.

La Palma, less than 100 metres from La Tuna, would have eased that friendship between the two women, therefore, on the death of one of them, the other was responsible for the care of the Beltrán Leyva children: Marcos Arturo, Héctor, Carlos and Alfredo. 

Therefore, at the outbreak of the war for control of the organization, Arturo and Chapo talked about a truce, but Barbas was sure that Mochomo was turned over by Chapo. 

"They called each other cousins," said a resident of La Tuna who knew them at the time, "and here it was rumored that they continued communicating". 

But with the death of El Barbas, in December 2009, the violence in the country calmed down and the Beltrán Leyva Cartel began to be dismantled, first with the arrest of Carlos Beltrán Leyva, on December 30, 2009. Hector was arrested on October 1, 2014, and according to the United States Department of State, his extradition is pending, although it has not specified whether the official request has already been made to the Mexican Government. 

It is expected that the next preliminary hearing against Mochomo will be determined in the coming days, revealed the USDOJ.