Zetas: Sister of Miguel and Omar Treviño arrested

by Chivis Martinez for Borderland Beat

The Treviño sister is "Jefa de Plaza" of Nuevo Laredo

Procuraduría General de Justicia de Tamaulipas announced the arrest of Ana Isabel Treviño Morales.  She  was arrested Monday night in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, the city of which she is the “Jefa de Plaza” (Plaza Boss).  

The arrest was directed by the Attorney General of Tamaulipas (PGJT), and conducted by the Army and the Federal Police.

The PGJT, stated that the detainee is the sister of Miguel Ángel and Omar Treviño Morales, aka Z42 and the Z40, and is accused of a kidnapping, committed in November of 2016.

The A.G. said intelligence indicates that the Treviño Morales family operate the Zetas cartel mainly in Nuevo Laredo, where they control organized crime activities of; human trafficking, drug trafficking, extortion and kidnapping, homicides, disappearances, oil theft, among others.She, along with her friend 'La Teniente', also control organized crime activity in Coahuila bars.

In July 2013, Z40, her brother, premier leader of the Zetas, was stopped between Sabinas, Coahuila, and Nuevo Laredo, with two million dollars, eight long weapons and 500 cartridges. Ana Isabel immediately filed a writ of amparo, against any arrest warrant, in any location. The request was presented and granted on July 22, 2013.  

The amparo was ratified by payment/fee in the amount of 31,500 pesos. It should be remembered that Z40 was granted four amparos in the First District Court of Amparo.   It has supposedly helped him against any “mistreatment”.

After the capture of the Treviño brothers, the Zetas organization split and the part controlled by

Trevino’s was named Cártel del Noreste or CDN. Miguel’s nephew José Francisco "Kiko" Treviño, was left in charge.  

It was the capture of Kiko Treviño by US authorities in Texas  in September 2016, that prompted Ana Isabel to be given control of Nuevo Laredo, a city in the northeastern state of Tamaulipas, a critical point of entry for drugs into the U.S. She continued her position of overseeing organised crime operations in Coahuila bars.

In March of this year, The National Security Commission (CNS) transferred Miguel Ángel Treviño Morales, "El Z40" , from the Altiplano prison to a penitentiary center located in Ciudad Juárez . The change was due to “the habitual rotation” that was  authorized by  Judicial Power.

Ana Treviño was born in 1968 in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas.

Amparo

I make no claim to understand the “Amparo” of the Mexican judicial system.  It is very complicated to laymen and even legal minds. Several nations have copied the Mexican Amparo and incorporated into their constitution. I asked J.L., my favorite go to legal mind,to give me an overview of what the amparo is.

I will say that one of the suspects in the case of the Iguala kidnapping  of 43 students, one of the G.U. leaders directly involved, was quietly released from prison and charges dropped, all because of his amparo and subsequent “violation of his human rights”. 

I recall in the case of Miguel Treviño Z40, the judge granting his fourth amparo, warned the attorney to advise Treviño that the amparo was only good if he halted criminality.  So it would seem the amparo was good until the date granted. Which may explain why je had so many. Another issue was the failure to pay the fee for the 4^th amparo, that inaction nullified the last amparo of the year he was arrested. Amparo literally translated means “protection”

From J.L

Theoretically, an amparo is a judicial remedy available to a claimant to protect his or her constitutional rights against proposed or actual government action. An amparo may also be used to appeal an adverse court ruling. From what I read in Mexican media, amparos are most commonly used as protective court orders, that is, a court order that prevents a government agency from taking certain actions against the claimant, or orders a government agency to desist from continuing a certain activity on the grounds that such governmental activity will violate the claimant's constitutional rights.

Unfortunately, the Mexican government has a well-established history of violating the constitutional rights of its citizens. Furthermore, its law enforcement agencies are badly trained and routinely employ unconstitutional methods to obtain confessions. Finally, in my opinion the government prosecutors and investigators do a very poor job of challenging a typical petition for an amparo, so judges routinely grant them.

I have not seen the details of the amparo obtained by the Trevino sister, but just on the face of it, the amparo had to have been obtained to protect the Trevino lady from actions that would have taken place about the time the earlier amparo was obtained in 2013(?). While the government could have been prohibited by that amparo from detaining her at the time, the government could arrest her (as it has done today) for different criminal acts committed after the original amparo was obtained. In other words, an amparo is only good against the activities complained against in that specific petition for an amparo. An amparo may continue to protect the claimant only against the government actions that the claimant alleges in that document, but it is does not protect the claimant for different criminal acts.

So, for purposes of understanding an amparo, it is best to describe a typical process: A suspect learns that the government has issued a warrant for his or her arrest, or that the government intends to take other action against him/her. He or she goes to court and claims that, for the reasons described in the petition for amparo, if the government is allowed to carry out its proposed actions against the claimant, it would result in irreparable harm to the suspect's constitutional rights. It is at this juncture that the government could challenge the validity of the allegations in the petition for an amparo -- and I have read of several instances where the government has successfully opposed a petition--, but typically, the government does not oppose the petition or does a poor job, and the judge grants the petition. That is what usually happens. Subsequently, unless the government successfully challenges the amparo, the government cannot enforce the original arrest warrant or take action on the allegations that supported the original warrant.