La China will return to Baja California Sur

Translated by Otis B Fly-Wheel for Borderland Beat from a Zetatijuana article

Subject Matter: La China, Melissa Calderon Ojeda
Recommendation: No prior subject matter knowledge required

The transfer of Melisa Calderon Ojeda aka La China, to a Federal penitentiary in the State of Morelos was illegal, estimates a Judge of La Paz district, who conceded an amparo and ordered that she be returned to the penitentiary from which she was transferred in March of 2016.

Reporter: Luis Carlos Sainz
Due to penitentiary authorities in Baja California Sur illegaly moving the ex Jefa de Sicarios of the Las Fuerzas Especiales de Damaso, Meliso Calderon Ojeda, a Federal Judge conceded an amparo and ordered her return to La Paz penitentiary.

Melisa Margarita Calderon Ojeda is currently imprisoned in Cefereso No. 16 Femenil in Caotlan del Rio, in the State of Morelos, however, her return to her former penitentiary will depend on resolving the revision that was put before the Public Ministry of the Federation.

Her original transfer was agreed to because she required special forms of security or vigilance, so the authorities in BCS solicited a space for her in the Morelos Maximum Security Prison, and commissioned the OADPRS with base in Mexico City to authorise her transfer, which they did on 23rd of March 2016.




According to the petition, La China, intended to carry out actions aimed at violating and destabilizing the order, discipline and security of the detention centre and endanger the life of the other inmates, those that visit and work at the establishment.

Prison executives say that the pressing situation represented an exception to article 18 of the Constitution, which states that those deprived of liberty will be held in prisons closest to their home, a provision that does not apply in cases of organized crime and of inmates who require special security measures. ( Otis: seems there is a case here for Dr Mireles to appeal his current situation).

In addition, the first paragraph of article 194 of the law on execution of sanctions and security measures for the State of Baja California Sur was invoked, justifying the local government to authorize the transfer of defendants in cases that " endanger the life or physical integrity of the inmates or the security and order of the establishment, and must notify the Judicial authorities on the next business day."

Through her legal defense, La China filed a petition for indirect amparo (345/2016) before the First District Court in the State of Baja California Sur, demanding an order of incommunicado detention and its execution, as well as the transfer order that took her to the Federal prison in Cuernavaca.

La China pointed out that the authorities responsible for her prison transfer to the Director General of Ceferesos in the State of Baja California Sur, the Commissioner of OADPRS, and the Director General of Cefereso No.16.

In analyzing the matter, the amparo Judge recalled that as of the criminal reform act of 2008, the discretion of administrative authorities regarding the handling of defendants and sentenced persons was ended, leaving this power to the judicial authorities in the supervision of all events of juridical importance of the convicted.

In spite of the justification of prison authorities, the judge found no evidence in the administrative file of the inmate, nor in the reports rendered to the amparo trial, that he had been notified of the transfer on the next business day, which violate the right of legal security of the complainant, as it is an act devoid of judicial control established by the law for said act.

For the above, the First District Judge in La Paz, Baja California Sur, Javier Loyola Zosa, ranted the amparo requested by Melisa Margarita Calderon Ojeda, so that the OADPRS commissioner orders the necessary actions to return Calderon Ojeda the amparo plaintiff to the La Paz Femenil prison.

The amparo judgment is not yet firmly established, as both the Director General of the OADPRS of BCS as well as the agent of the Federal Public Prosecutors Office, filed an appeal for review, which requires that the records of the amparo trial are sent to the Collegiate Court of the 26th District with residence in La Paz.

"La China" Calderón Ojeda was arrested on September 19, 2015 at an airfield in Cabo San Lucas, when she intended to leave the State aboard an aircraft. Investigative agents notified her that they had an arrest warrant for the crime of homicide. 


That afternoon , the woman, designated as chief Sicario of the Furezas Especiales de Damaso of the Cartel of Sinaloa, was in the waiting room of the small air terminal, accompanied by a young pregnant woman of 17 years. When approached by her captors she did not resist, because she had neither guns nor gunmen.

 Melisa had escaped on six previous occasions when police were about to catch her, but the complicity of some police elements allowed her to know the " pitazos " and flee in time. 
To date, Melisa Margarita is prosecuted in case 17/2015 for her probable responsibility in the commission of the crime of homicide qualified with treachery to the degree of complicity in torturing Humberto Juárez León "Don Maleno", 54 years old.
 
The crime charged to the woman and her criminal clan occurred on January 16, 2015 in a residence on Bernardo Maldonado Street, between Luis Barajas and Enrique Von Borstel, in the colony Revolution, when they confused "Don Maleno" with his son, José Humberto Juárez Mora "El Pollón". 

According to preliminary investigation LPZ / 007 / homicides / 2015, "La China" and her ex-partner Eduardo Martín Alvarado "El Kumi" were ordered to assassinate "El Pollón", and their brother José Carlos "El Pala" and Jonathan Omar "El John", by the internal fight between the cells of the FED: "The Pepillos" and "The 28's". However, while trying to comply with the order and enter the house, they shot the father of El Pollon. 

Calderón, 30, is linked to the execution of several people in a war of criminal factions that in Baja California Sur has caused almost two hundred fatalities in recent times, and she is an interested party in at least twenty previous inquiries.


Original article in Spanish at Zetatijuana