César Tapia Wins Passing Legal Battle: Sinaloa

 "Char" for Borderland Beat 

This article was translated and reposted from RIODOCE 

WRITTEN BY: ALEJANDRO MONJARDÍN

"EL YUBIRI"

Arraignment was revoked due to "errors" made by the judge.

The indictment issued in Culiacán against César Tapia Quintero, logistics operator of Ismael el Mayo Zambada, was revoked due to a violation of due process committed by judges of the Federal Judiciary.

According to the Sedena, Cesar was one of the main generators of violence in the state who, after the arrest of his brother Guadalupe Tapia, was left in charge of a group and continued with "the transfer of drugs from Culiacan, Sinaloa to Tijuana and Mexicali, Baja California, to later introduce them to the United States of America, through different modalities".

"Cesar "N" is one of the priority targets generating violence and represents a threat to society, in addition to being considered the alleged leader of a criminal cell with a presence in the states of Sinaloa, Sonora and Baja California," the institution said.

Cesar was arrested following a report of armed individuals, according to the Sedena report, on August 7 last year in the Revolucion neighborhood in Culiacan, along with another man and a woman in possession of fentanyl pills and weapons.

In Culiacán, César was prosecuted for carrying a firearm for the exclusive use of the Army, and the other two were arrested for crimes against health in the form of possession of the narcotic fentanyl. In the Federal Criminal Justice Center of Almoloya de Juárez, State of Mexico, the three were prosecuted for organized crime.

According to court documents, the indictment issued in Culiacán was revoked due to due process violations.

According to the reports, in the initial hearing, there was a control judge and in the continuation of the hearing, there was another judge, when it should have been the same judge in both.

The initial hearing will have to be reopened and the control judge will have to reevaluate the evidence.

According to the Public Prosecutor's Office's account of the arrest, Cesar was detained circumstantially due to a report of armed individuals.

The prosecutor said that at 10:44 p.m. on August 7, 2023, members of the National Guard and the Army who were conducting surveillance patrols received a report from C4 about an anonymous tip to the 089 number indicating that there were armed people outside and on the roof of a house.

The agents arrived at the house at 23:05 hours and noticed a man, later identified as Cesar, standing in the street in front of the house, with a gun strapped to him.

Upon noticing the presence of the officers, Cesar grabbed the gun and pointed it at the patrol cars, so the officers stopped and four officers got out of the vehicles.

One of the National Guard agents told him to put down his gun, but Cesar went into the house.

The agents entered the house and in the living room they found a man and a woman next to a table on which there were two plastic bags with fentanyl pills.

Cesar was standing next to the staircase pointing at the elements until an agent told him to put the gun down and he put it down, placed it on the floor and was arrested.

The weapon was a Pietro Beretta Gardone pistol, with its magazine loaded with 15 useful 9 millimeter caliber cartridges.

Experts from the Attorney General's Office determined that the bags on the table contained 2,000 fentanyl pills and a total of 17 cell phones.

The detainees were handed over to the Attorney General's Office and on August 10 the initial hearing was held before a control judge.

On August 14, the continuation of the initial hearing was held with a different judge and it was he who issued the order of committal to trial, after considering that the arrest in flagrante delicto and the possibility that they committed the crimes were accredited.

The Court of Appeals ruled that, since the same judge was not present in both hearings, due process was violated.

"Since the principle of immediacy was violated to the detriment of the accused, thus violating the right to adequate defense and due process, it is appropriate to reinstate the initial hearing in its entirety and with a judge who was not previously present, since such rights must be respected from the beginning of the hearing and not in a partial manner," states the sentence.

César Tapia was initially transferred to the Aguaruto Penitentiary Center and then taken to the Altiplano federal prison in Almoloya de Juárez, in the State of Mexico.

Two days after Cesar's arrest, on August 9, a man and a woman were arrested in Tijuana, allegedly linked to the Tapia Quintero group.

The couple arrested in Tijuana were charged with organized crime.

The Sedena has been tracking the Tapia Quintero family since 2022. The first to be arrested was Heibar Josué Tapia, Lupe's son and César's nephew.

Heibar was captured on August 22 along with another person, in the Bachigualato neighborhood, in possession of fentanyl pills and a firearm.

On February 9, 2023, Lupe Tapia was arrested in a house in the Tacuichamona syndicate.

Article published on March 03, 2024 in the 1101st edition of the weekly Ríodoce.

SOURCE: RIODOCE