Cesar Homero Magallanes, Alleged Beltran Leyva Drug Lord, Arrested

"Char" for Borderland Beat 

This article was translated and reposted from PROCESO

Police in Madrid arrested the "veteran Mexican drug trafficker" on a request for extradition to the United States as he was waiting to board a flight to Mexico City.

By: Alejandro Gutiérrez 

MADRID, Spain (apro) - César Homero Magallanes González, an alleged drug trafficker who belongs to the Beltrán Leyva network, was arrested at Madrid's Barajas airport when he was waiting to board a flight to Mexico City.

The National Police arrested the "veteran Mexican drug trafficker" due to a request for extradition to the United States, according to the digital media El Confidencial and Proceso was able to confirm with legal sources.These sources confirmed that the petition is for "conspiracy to distribute cocaine with the intent to import it into the United States" and "conspiracy to possess cocaine with the intent to distribute it aboard a vessel subject to the jurisdiction of the United States". Each of these charges carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.  

It was on September 19 when the alleged drug trafficker, 58 years old and 1.80 meters tall, was accompanied by a woman, waiting to board his flight, which was leaving around 9 p.m. at Terminal 4 of the Adolfo Suárez-Madrid Barajas airport, when he was approached and arrested by three national police officers.

Adolfo Suárez-Madrid Barajas airport: SPAIN

Only four days before, the request from the U.S. Justice Department had arrived with all the information and a photograph of the "veteran Mexican drug trafficker", which was published exclusively by the aforementioned digital media, which affirms that he was among Interpol's most wanted.

The publication recalls that the Beltrán Leyva organization split from the Sinaloa cartel. Proceso has reported on the Beltrán's break with the rest of the Sinaloa cartel factions, in 2008, after the arrest of Alfredo Beltrán Leyva, `El Mochomo'. The brothers, Arturo and Héctor Beltrán Leyva, accused Joaquín `El Chapo' Guzmán Loera of treason, to whom they attributed the `pitazo' that ended with the capture of `El Mochomo'.

This started a confrontation between both factions, with hundreds of deaths. Arturo, El Barbas, was killed in December 2009 during an operation by the Mexican Navy to arrest him in Cuernavaca, and Héctor was arrested in San Miguel de Allende, where he kept a low profile, and died in prison in 2018 from a heart attack.

On September 20, Homero Magallanes was brought before the judge of Instruction number 4 of the National Court, José Luis Calama, and when questioned by him, the detainee did not accept to be extradited nor did he waive the principle of criminal specialty, a legal form in which the detained person cannot be prosecuted or convicted or deprived of liberty for being committed before his delivery

Judge Camala ordered him to be remanded in custody, pending the start of the extradition process, which could take 4 months or more, if there are appeals, subject to the decision of whether or not the extradition to the Southern California Court is approved or not.

According to the brief signed by U.S. Attorney Liudmila Batista, the drug trafficker was traveling in Europe. U.S. authorities had information that he had plane tickets to return to Mexico on Iberia flight IB6409 bound for Mexico City.

The detainee "is associated with the Beltrán Leyva cartel, a powerful and large-scale drug trafficking organization operating in Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Panama, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico and the United States," says the document quoted by the digital media.

An organization that "employed corrupt police agents in Mexico to avoid their apprehension," it states.

From this documentation sent by the United States to Spain, it details that, "through his criminal conduct, Magallanes has received hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments". It also notes that, like other members of the criminal organization, they infiltrate within the authorities, particularly within law enforcement.

"Magallanes and others employed corrupt police agents in Mexico to avoid apprehension and prosecution," he points to US documentation to support an arrest and prevent his escape, as reported by El Confidencial. 

Once arrested, although he did not resist, he asked to be examined by a doctor, who only prescribed omeprazole to combat reflux.

The captured man and his allies received large quantities of cocaine in Oaxaca, which they then transported to Mexico City, where they packaged it for shipment to the United States.

Source: PROCESO