Using prison guard uniforms, two highly dangerous inmates exit the main entrance of the Sinaloa State Prison

Chivis Martinez for Borderland Beat from "El Norte"

Higuera and Paredes

Paredes linked to Sinaloa Cartel as financial operator, was involved in the 2016 military ambush and  Higuera is a leader of the BLO linked "Los Mazatlecos" involved in the 2012 police ambush

Inmates in the Culiacán Aguaruto Sinaloa State Prison, dressed in prison guard uniforms and exited through main entrance.  

Two inmates of the Aguaruto state prison, considered highly dangerous and who remained in a special cell to avoid possible escape, did just that early yesterday from the penitentiary center with support from prison staff.

The head of the Secretariat of Public Security of Sinaloa, General Brigadier Fermin Hernandez Montealegre, who took office a week ago, confirmed that Julián Grimaldi Paredes and Carlos Jesús Salmón Higuera, each of them related to antagonistic cartels, exited  through the main door of the prison  wearing guard  uniforms.

Grimaldi Paredes and Salmón Higuera had an injunction to avoid their transfer to a federal prison. Paredes is alleged to be the financial operator of the Sinaloa Cartel and  participated in the military ambush on September 30, 2016, in which five soldiers died.

Higuera is considered one of the armed leaders of the Los Mazatlecos Cartel, linked to the Cartel of Los Beltrán Leyva, and is accused of organizing the 2012 ambush on the San Blas El Fuerte highway, in which seven ministerial policemen were killed.

"Despite having a technological infrastructure, having security measures to prevent escapes ... if the human factor fails, despite the best measures to being implemented, as in this incident, security may fail. And on this occasion, presumably there is the collaboration of the human element, "said Hernández Montealegre.

The General explained that the events occurred at 3:40AM on Sunday, when the departure of four people was detected.  The four men boarded vehicles that were waiting outside the prison.

When people in a prison custody uniform were observed, the head of the state SSP said, personnel questioned about the departure, but a prison official said they were guards who had changed their shift.

However, shortly after, an alert was issued and a  list was made, identifying the absence of two prisoners and two prison guards.  All four remain fugitives.  

The prison was closed yesterday for the scheduled family visits of the prisoners.

This is the second escape that occured this year in the state prison. Last March, Juan José Esparragoza Monzón, "El Azulito", and four other inmates escaped from the prison, also aided by two prison guards.

Transfer request

Last May, the Public Security Secretariat of Sinaloa requested the National Security Commission (CNS) to transfer Julián Grimaldi Paredes to a federal prison. 

According to the agency, there was no reply to the request.

Grimaldi Paredes was arrested on February 16 of this year in Culiacán and two days later he entered the Aguarato prison,