Judge Isidro Avelar Gutiérrez Officially Suspended Over Receiving Bribes from CJNG & Los Zetas

"Socalj" for Borderland Beat

Isidro Avelar Gutiérrez, is under house arrest on charges of bribery to favor members of Los Zetas and the CJNG including the release of El Menchito in 2016.

Isidro Avelar Gutiérrez will not be able to return to his work as a judge in the state of Jalisco after the ruling of a District Court in the State of Mexico, which denied revoking the temporary suspension granted to the jurist by the Federal Judiciary Council (CJF).

As reported by Borderland Beat, the judge is being investigated for his alleged links with the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel (CJNG), as the Mexican authorities detected large deposits in his bank accounts after having released Rubén Oseguera Gonzáles, El Menchito, son of Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, El Mencho, leader of the criminal organization.

The Ninth District Judge in Amparo Matters and Federal Trials in the State of Mexico, Juan Miguel Ortiz Marmolejo, was responsible for continuing the suspension of Avelar Gutiérrez's license, but he had previously granted him legal recourse to leave from prison. The judge argued that he took into account the recommendations by the United States government, who pointed out the probable links between Avelar Gutiérrez and the CJNG.

Isidro Avelar received the precautionary measure of house arrest on January 20, which dictated that he could leave the prison in which he was being held to face the process against him for illicit enrichment. He is accused by the Attorney General of the Republic of having received more than 12 million pesos in 2011 to favor a member of Los Zetas and three of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, one of them was "El Menchito," who was released in 2016.

The federal authorities asked the magistrate to prove the origin of a large amount of money he received in less than 5-years, which he has not been able to do so far, but his case has not been brought to trial due to delays in derived processes to the health contingency caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The case of the former magistrate is linked to the accusations against Roberto Sandoval, former governor of Nayarit, who is also pointed out by the US Department of the Treasury for having links with the CJNG, as he is accused of having received bribes from the Los Cunis organization, the financial arm of the cartel.

“Officials like Isidro Avelar Gutiérrez and Roberto Sandoval Castañeda cruelly enrich themselves at the expense of their fellow citizens. Whether they're taking bribes from drug trafficking organizations or engaging in a variety of other illicit activities," Sigal Mandelker, assistant secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence in the United States told a news conference.

Isidro Avelar Gutiérrez was arrested on November 22, 2019 in Guadalajara, Jalisco by elements of the Attorney General's Office (FGR), who presented him before a federal judge in the Almoloya de Juárez prison. The court issued preventive detention against the former magistrate in June of this year after a request by the FGR, since the crime for which he is accused does not warrant this measure.

Background

On November 28, 2019, Avelar Gutiérrez was formally charged and admitted to the Federal Social Readaptation Center No. 4 (also known as "El Rincón") a maximum-security prison in the municipality of Tepic, Nayarit. Avelar Gutiérrez was also sanctioned under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act by the United States Treasury Department for his suspected money laundering links to the CJNG boss Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes ("El Mencho").

Almost simultaneously, Mexico's Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF) froze Avelar Gutiérrez's bank accounts after they noticed there was a deposit for MXN$70 million, an amount that did not match the income he received by the Mexican government.

The case against Avelar Gutiérrez was opened after authorities detected cases in which judges were holding properties and other assets that did not match their income. Investigators concluded that these judges were likely receiving money from organized crime members in exchange for favorable resolutions in their trials.

Between 2010 and 2016, Avelar Gutiérrez acquired assets of more than MXN$18 million. During this time, he ordered the release of Juan Francisco Aguilar Santana ("Juan Pistolas"), one of the closest men of El Mencho. According to the investigation, Avelar Gutiérrez was in charge of the Sixth Unitary Court of the Third Circuit based in Jalisco and attended at least 10 cases of detainees linked to the CJNG, resulting in a result in favor of many of its members.

In the case of Juan Pistolas, Avelar Gutiérrez said that the prosecution did not have enough evidence to keep him in prison and ordered his release. Juan Pistolas was arrested in June 2018 for possession of multiple military-exclusive firearms, two grenade launchers, and narcotics. He was a repeat offender since he was arrested in 2010 and had spent seven years in jail for drug trafficking. At the time of his arrest, Juan Pistolas was one of the assassin squad leaders of the CJNG. His men recruited people to train as sicarios, and his areas of operations were Guadalajara and Tlajomulco de Zúñiga.

On May 13, 2019, Santiago Nieto Castillo, head of the FIU, reported that MXN$50 million were seized from a federal judge as part of an anti-organized crime investigation. Although he did not identify him by his name, everything suggested that the money was owned by Avelar Gutiérrez because the UIF confirmed the judge was based in Jalisco.

However, the Juan Pistolas case was not the only one of its kind. There are others in which the same judge ruled the release of at least 10 defendants who allegedly belong to the CJNG, including Rubén Oseguera González "El Menchito", son of El Mencho. In his 20-year career as a judge, Avelar Gutiérrez also handled the cases of Rafael Caro Quintero and Rogelio González Pizaña, former early Zetas member from the 1990s.

Mexico City-based newspaper Reforma stated that the UIF is also investigating Avelar Gutiérrez for a suspicious account he owned in HSBC where over MXN$12 million in deposits were made in November 2011. The judge said that the money was a payment he received for the sale of a property, but investigators maintain that the sale was made in August 2012, several months after the deposit.

Source Infobae Borderland Beat