Judge who presided in the case of Menchito, was executed along with his wife

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Just last February 1, Uriel Villegas Ortiz assumed the position of control judge at the Federal Criminal Justice Center in Colima. He had not been in that entity for 6 months when Tuesday he was executed together with his wife Verónica Barajas.

His previous three years he had worked in one of the most complicated circuits of the Federal Judicial Branch, that of Jalisco, where the Office of the Attorney General of the Republic has carried out investigations against justice providers.

In March 2017, when he obtained the appointment of a judge, his first assignment was that of head of the Sixth District Court of Federal Criminal Proceedings of Jalisco and then the Ninth District Court of Amparo in Criminal Matters of the same State.

In the first court, he was in charge of one of the four criminal proceedings that were brought in Mexico against Rubén Oseguera González "El Menchito", son of Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes "El Mencho", leader of the  Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación.

On March 6, 2018, Villegas ordered the National Security Commission to transfer the son of the capo of the Oaxaca Federal Prison to that of  West  Jalisco, or else he would order the 12-hour arrest of the General Coordinator of Federal Centers.

Authorities who were involved in the case at that time said that the transfer was carried out, although "El Menchito" only spent a short time in Tapatías lands, because some time later they took him to the Federal Prison of Chiapas and then to the Sonora Federal Prison.

In the process for organized crime, as in all the trials that began for crimes committed in Mexico, Oseguera was acquitted, although this apparently did not involve Villegas.

At around 40 years of age and originally from Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, in 2001 Villegas received a law degree from the Autonomous University of Sonora. He entered the Judicial Power of the Federation as a judicial officer, then he was an actuary, secretary and finally judge. He was assigned to courts and tribunals of Sonora, Guanajuato, Jalisco and, finally, Colima.

In November 2018, the then deputy attorney for Federal Crimes of the current Attorney General of the Republic, Felipe Muñoz Vázquez, revealed that there was an ongoing investigation against judges and magistrates linked to the CJNG.

A year later, the FGR arrested federal magistrate Isidro Avelar Gutiérrez, who, as head of the Sixth Unitary Court of Jalisco, ordered the release of Juan Francisco Aguilar Santana "Juan Pistolas", a man close to "El Mencho".

Avelar, who is currently incarcerated in the Altiplano Prison, was told at the time to intervene and deal with other federal justice providers in Jalisco in favor of various CJNG operators.

ZONA DE GUERRA COSTA #COLIMA

PRESUNTA PARIENTE DE JUEZ FEDERAL LIC. URIEL VILLEGAS ORTIZ, ACUSA AL PRESIDENTE @lopezobrador_ DE SER EL PRINCIPAL ARTÍFICE DE LA EJECUCIÓN DE SU PRIMO HERMANO, AL QUITARLE LA ESCOLTA QUE TENÍA, A PESAR DE TENER CONOCIMIENTO DE QUE ESTABA AMENAZADO pic.twitter.com/XTo74FwXBo

— TH3PR3D4TH0R Mxx (@fernand17704066) June 17, 2020