Uruguayan Court of Appeals confirmed extradition of Gerardo González Valencia, high ranking leader of CJNG/Cuinis

"MX" for Borderland Beat

The Court of Criminal Appeals of the 4th confirmed the ruling and approved the transfer of the inmate Gerardo González Valencia. The sentence was signed on October 2 and notified only on Friday, October 26.

The defense of González Valencia has until Monday, November 8, to take his case to the Supreme Court of Justice, the last process by the system. Gonzalez González's lawyers are currently Gabriela Gómez and Ana Audiffred, who replaced Víctor Della Valle.

First, the organized crime judge Beatriz Larrieu had set the extradition, but the ruling was appealed by the inmate's legal counsel. González Valencia spent five years hiding in residential neighborhoods of Punta del Este and Montevideo, but in April 2016 he was arrested. The police managed to find him when he prepared his escape and stopped him when he went  for his children at school in Carrasco.

His capture also coincided with the arrest of another Cuini member: José, "El Chema" or "Chepa", who was captured on December 27, 2017 in Fortaleza, Brazil. Both were dedicated to laundering assets for the organization in South America. Panama Papers international investigation revealed a large number of corporations created by the Panamanian study Mosack Fonseca to evade taxes in tax havens. In Uruguay, he was prosecuted for money laundering. He is considered one of the most guarded inmates of the Uruguayan penitentiary system.

Los Cuinis is the richest drug trafficking organization in the world. His brother Abigael - known as "El Cuini" - was the head of the cartel. It is a low profile organization that became particularly wealthy focusing on the Asian market and innovating in terms of financial operations in the real estate market.

Seven brothers González Valencia integrate hierarchical positions. Since 2015, "El Cuini" was imprisoned in a maximum security prison in Puerto Vallarta. In August he was transferred to Durango. A report by the Drug Enforcement Administration of the United States (DEA) considers the group with greater operational capacity with regard to other famous cartels such as the one in Sinaloa, whose leader "El Chapo" Guzmán is a prisoner in the United States.

At the time, González Valencia launched threats against Interior Minister Eduardo Bonomi. In an official statement, he said the following: "They tortured me, they took me naked in sub-zero temperatures, and if the interior minister, Bonomi keeps sending his guards to torture me, look for the highest bridge in Uruguay where I will hang him."

He was first detained in the Comcar, but after the threats were sent to a dependency of the Republican Guard, where he is still held with special security measures. The idea was to avoid generating more links with criminals housed in Uruguayan prisons. Prison Intelligence had detected his relationship with the group of "Betito" Suarez.

Sources: Subrayado