El Popeye of the CAF who killed Cardenal Juan Jesus Posadas Ocampo, want to return to Tijuana

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

Subject Matter: Alfredo Araujo, El Popeye
Recommendation: No prior subject matter knowledge required

A Unitary Court is providing the opportunity for Alfredo Araujo, a Cartel Arellano Felix sicario to apply for a transfer to La Mesa prison. Currently in a maximum security prison in Oaxaca, he was prosecuted for the murder of Cardinal Juan Jesus Posada Ocampo; while he was not tried for the attack against journalist J. Jesus Blancornelas.

Reporter: Luis Carlos Sainz
Alfredo Araujo Ávila "El Popeye" won an injunction to reconsider the refusal of a Sentencing Judge to transfer him from a maximum security prison to a social reintegration center in Tijuana and continue to serve out his sentence.


As soon as the protective ruling that the Fourth Unitary Court of the Second Circuit offered to the former cartel gunman Arellano Félix (CAF) was heard, the Federal Public Ministry filed an appeal for review by a Collegiate Court in Criminal Matters to verify whether the resolution was attached to law.

Araujo is known in the criminal world for his alleged involvement in the gang recruitment of Barrio Logan in San Diego, California, which in 1993 were taken to Guadalajara, Jalisco, to follow in the footsteps of drug trafficker Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán and try to assassinate him ; This affair ended in a shooting that took place on May 24 of that year, in which Cardinal Juan Jesús Posadas Ocampo died and six others died at the airport in Guadalajara.




Although "El Popeye" has not been sentenced for the aforementioned homicides in a common court in Guadalajara, he already has a sentence of eleven years three months of prison imposed by the Sixth District Judge of Federal Criminal Proceedings in the State of Mexico for the crime of collecting firearms, derived from the facts of the air terminal. At the same time, he was acquitted for other federal crimes.

The weapons which led to his sentence were located in a building on La Merced Street, in the Chapalita colonia, one day after the shooting. In a hide from the farm where there were documents of the Arellano Felix brothers, were located 12 AK-47 rifles, two mini-14 rifles, a 30-06 rifle, an M-60 machine gun, five pistols type super 38 and eight tear gas canisters. In addition to weapon magazines, bullets and bulletproof vests.

Later, the assassin was identified as one of the alleged participants in the attack against the journalist J. Jesús Blancornelas, a memorable co-founder of ZETA , on November 27, 1997, without being able to kill him as ordered by his bosses Benjamín and Ramón Arellano Felix. For this crime, he has not even been prosecuted.

Alfredo was arrested in Tijuana by the military and the Federal Police on January 25, 2008, in the Colonia Obrera. From there he was transferred to the Federal Center of Social Readaptation (Cefereso) Number 1 "Altiplano", in Almoloya de Juárez, State of Mexico, where he remained until a few years ago, when he was transferred to the Cefereso 13 CPS Oaxaca, in Miahuatlán de Porfirio Díaz.

On October 26, 2016, the Lawyer for the sicario filed a brief with the federal judge who sentenced him, to raise his request to transfer from the federal prison from Oaxaca to the Tijuana Social Rehabilitation Center, arguing that it is a constitutionally recognized human right to serve out the rest of the sentence in a prison near your home.

The petition was denied by the Court of origin on June 20, 2017, taking into account the unfavorable opinions of various authorities for the transfer of the inmate, from maximum to medium security. "El Popeye" appealed to that resolution, but received a new setback on October 27 of the same year by the Second Unitary Court, who confirmed the refusal.

Judge and magistrate considered it sufficient to deny the transfer of Araujo Ávila, the criminological indicators sent by both the Decentralized Administrative Body for Prevention and Social Readaptation (OADPRS), and the general director of Cefereso Number 13 CPS Oaxaca. They consider that the inmate has a high criminal capacity, a low social adaptability and a high dangerous state index.

The reports highlight the prisoner: "It was considered that he covers the criminological clinical profile to remain in federal maximum security centers, as the reason why the opinion of a possible transfer was' unfavorable 'and therefore' transfer of the prisoner to the Center of Social Readaptation located in the city of Tijuana, Baja California.

The opinion was based on the conclusions of different technical areas of the penitentiary center, namely: pedagogical study, work history, social work, psychological study, criminological study and report of the security section. It follows that Alfredo Araujo Ávila is a "high-risk material author" for prison institutions, so transferring him to the Tijuana prison "is not suitable according to his criminological characteristics of maximum security."

The report of the federal authorities concludes that the transfer of the prisoner to the Tijuana prison is not considered viable, "by virtue of not having the infrastructure, nor with the technological equipment that supports the elements of security and custody, to keep the proper protection and surveillance of the person in question ".

THE GRIEVANCES OF "EL POPEYE"

The legal defense of Araujo Ávila indicated in favor of his client that the transfer to the prison closest to his home would favor his social reintegration and that the refusal of the authorities is unconstitutional, since the inmate has not been sentenced for the crime of organized crime, that would be one of the impediments to send him to a prison that is not maximum security.

When filing the writ of amparo, the plaintiff's lawyer stated in his letter: "It is obvious that the responsible authority violates the fundamental rights of my client, by considering only the aspects that harm him, the administrative reports and in clear violation at the beginning of impartiality, since the authority of origin, fails to make its own pronouncement, allowing itself to be influenced by opinions that are alien to its autonomy as judge in charge of the criminal procedure ".

The litigant expressed that there are conclusions that reveal an improvement in the behavior of "El Popeye." Among other reports, the pedagogical study reports that "the subject in question has shown an adequate participation in educational activities, a situation that is reflected in his behavior, which has remained outside of conflicts, adhering to the regulations and respecting the figure of authority".

On the other hand, the labor study concludes: "He presents himself in good conditions of dressing and hygiene, reflecting interests in learning the technique of origami, to elaborate the figures with creativity and dedication; the interpersonal relationships that he establishes with his workshop colleagues and the attitude towards the instructors of this department are correct; apparently reflects no conflicts with the figures of authority to comply with the indications.

While the report of the security section indicates: "The prisoner, since his admission, until today (November 7, 2016), has shown good behavior, being respectful with his companions; trying not to get involved in conflicts. "

The legal representation of the prisoner insisted that the decision of the judge and the circuit magistrate deprived him of the possibility of serving his sentence in the detention center closest to his home, "a particularity that constitutes a human right that is aimed at propitiating his reintegration into the community. "

PROTECTION OF JUSTICE

The Fourth Unitary Court with residence in Toluca granted the protection and protection of federal justice to "El Popeye", considering that the denial of transfer suffers from sufficient technical-legal reasoning, since the responsible authorities limited themselves to invoking Constitutional Article 18 as support for its decision, but failed to specify the secondary legislation applicable to the matter.

(Otis: see article 18 :Article 18. (3) Arrest is permissible only for offenses punishable by imprisonment. The place of detention shall be completely separate from the place used for the serving of sentences.
 The federal and state governments shall organize the penal system within their respective jurisdictions on the basis of labor, training, and education as a means of social readjustment of the offender.
Women shall serve their sentences in places separate from those intended for men for the same purpose. Governors of States, subject to the provisions of the respective local laws, may conclude agreements of a general nature with the federal government, under which offenders convicted for common offenses may serve their sentence in establishments maintained by the federal executive. The federal government and the state governments shall establish special institutions for the treatment of juvenile delinquents.)

Based on the Law of Minimum Standards for the Readaptation of Sentences, applicable at the time of the incarceration of the complainant or in the new National Law of Criminal Enforcement, the judge of the case and the magistrate who denied the transfer had to define the cases in which an inmate requires "special security measures", as well as the restrictive hypothesis to authorize the transfer, "which generates a state of defenselessness and legal uncertainty in the now impeachment of amparo, as well as transgression to the principle of legality, since it does not allow to know with certainty the pertinent legal bases and the reasons that sustain the updating of that restriction to the fundamental right that it tries to exert ".

The Unitary Court granted the amparo to reinstate Alfredo Araujo Ávila in the enjoyment of human rights and the violated guarantees for the following purposes:

1. Discontinue the resolution claimed, pronounced by the Second Unitary Court of the Second Circuit and the Sixth District Judge of Federal Criminal Proceedings in the State of Mexico

2. With full jurisdiction, issue a new resolution, which must correct the formal defects specified in the judgment of amparo

3. It must pronounce sufficiently on the transfer requested by the sentenced person, from his current place of confinement to the penitentiary center located in Tijuana to serve the rest of the prison sentence that was imposed on him.

4. Should address, in light of the new argument made, the grievances against the decision of second instance, were enforced, in which respect must answer them in an integral and consistent manner.

5. The sense of the failure by which the protection granted to the complainant of merit is fulfilled, will be the responsibility of the responsible authority, since the amparo did not address substantive issues.

Before the amparo granted to "El Popeye", the agent of the Federal Public Ministry attached to the Fourth Unitary Court of the Second Circuit, filed an appeal for review that would delay an eventual transfer of the accused to this border.