Sinaloa Cartel: The extradition of 'El Vic' signed, he is then allowed to escape

Chivis Martinez Borderland Beat  Reforma

Víctor Manuel Félix Beltrán, "El Vic", alleged operator of the Sinaloa Cartel, was given help to escape from prison just five days after the federal government had signed his extradition to the United States.

Court documents confirm that on January 24, Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard signed the extradition order; on the 29th of the same month, the capo escaped from the Reclusorio Sur in Mexico City.

"The Government of the United Mexican States grants the Government of the United States of America, the international extradition of the Mexican national Víctor Manuel Félix Beltrán alias “Lic Vic", to be processed before the Federal District Court for the Northern District of Illinois" , says the agreement signed by the Secretary.

Ebrard authorized the handover of the brother-in-law of Jesús Alfredo Guzmán Salazar, "El Alfredillo", the son of Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, on charges of criminal association, and  distribution and manufacturing of drugs, as well as money laundering money.

"Communicate to the Director of the Manly Preventive Prison South in Mexico City, that Mr. Victor Manuel Félix Beltrán alias "Lic Vic", will continue at the disposal of this SRE, regarding the extradition, until this Agreement is signed "Ebrard said in the agreement.

"Once this agreement is finalized, make the requested person available to the FGR, so that he can be delivered to the requesting State, with prior notice to the Ministry of the Interior."

The agreement was signed after on December 12, 2019, a control judge at the Reclusorio Sur issued his legal opinion in favor of the delivery of the Sinaloa to the American Union. The expectation of the federal authorities was that "El Vic" would extend his extradition process through an amparo.

The United States Department of Justice bases the charges against "El Vic" on various phone calls that were intercepted between 2013 and 2017.

In one of them, in September 2013, Félix Beltrán and the brothers Héctor and Édgar Valencia Ortega agreed to distribution of 93 kilos of cocaine in Los Angeles, California.

A month later a conversation he had with Jorge Mario Valenzuela Verdugo, "El Marito Choclos", was intercepted, in which they planned to send cash from the United States to Mexico, using a "mule."

The US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) points out that tracking the "El Vic" phones made it possible to secure three shipments of cocaine and heroin in Los Angeles, the Pacific Ocean and the border.

At the same time, it led them to intercept $ 300,000 in cash in Orange County, California, between 2013 and 2015.

"El Vic" is the son of Víctor Manuel Félix Félix, "El 69", Joaquín's friend "El Chapo "Guzmán in charge of the cocaine route from Ecuador, Peru and Colombia to our country.

The young man is one of those who attended the restaurant where Iván Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar "El Chapito" and his brother Jesús Alfredo were kidnapped on August 15, 2016 in Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco.

Betrayed by a childhood friend

A childhood friend, Adalberto Salles Gallegos, is the DEA's main collaborating witness against Víctor Manuel Félix Beltrán.

Although Adalberto  was born in Laredo, Texas, his parents, originally from Guadalajara, took him at the age of 18 months,  to Guadalajara, and in approximately 1990 the family moved again this time to Los Angeles, California.

In 1992, his father Guillermo Salles Figueroa was arrested in that city for trafficking drugs for Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, and sentenced to 20 years in prison. The family almost immediately returned to the capital of Guadalajara.

"After my father's arrest, my mother moved us to Guadalajara, where our family had relationships with family members of the leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, Joaquín Guzmán Loera 'El Chapo', due to the close relationship between my father and Guzmán Loera, Adalberto Salles declared before the US court on November 20, 2017.

" I grew up in Guadalajara with Víctor Manuel Félix Beltrán, whom I knew as 'Víctor' and other children of drug traffickers within the Sinaloa Cartel. Víctor's father , Víctor Félix Félix, was a large-scale drug trafficker and money launderer at the Sinaloa Cartel and had close connections with 'Chapo'. "

When Salles and Félix were around 17 years old, they talked about the future, about whether they were going to do the same as their parents. The same year they had that conversation, they both began to get involved in their parents' businesses.

Young Salles says that conversations with "El Vic" were often about the placement of drug shipments in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles.

"I also heard Víctor talk to the children of Ismael Zambada García about drug trafficking, including Ismael Imperial Zambada, whom I knew as 'Mayito Gordo', and Ismael Zambada Sicairos, who I knew as 'Mayito Flaco', also the partner of the 'Mayito Gordo', who I knew as 'Cheyo' ", he relates.

Like his father, Adalberto Salles was arrested in 2014 in the United States and, with no other viable option, negotiated with the authorities a lower sentence in exchange for information.

Salles was sentenced to two years in prison and, since his release from prison, has been protected  by the US authorities as a collaborating witness in the WITSEC program.