"Char" for Borderland Beat
This article was translated and reposted from RIODOCE
Former member of the Army was Chapo Guzmán's security chief; he had been held since 2013.
After 11 years in prison, the former head of security for Joaquín el Chapo Guzmán, Marcelino Ticante Castro, a.k.a. El Fantasma, was released.
El Fantasma had been held in El Altiplano prison since February 2013; he was released on July 2.
During President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's morning conference, the Undersecretary of Security and Citizen Protection, Luis Rodríguez Bucio, announced cases of criminals released by federal judges.
Among the cases he mentioned was that of the Phantom, who was granted early release for the crime against health and carrying a firearm.
The sixth judge granted the benefit of execution of sentences based in Mexico City, on Friday, June 28 and on Tuesday, July 2, he was released from prison.
Ticante Castro was one of Chapo Guzman's most trusted men.
According to court documents, El Fantasma recruited Carlos Manuel Hoo Ramirez, El Condor, who became Chapo's bodyguard and was designated by the Attorney General's Office as his private secretary.
El Chapo and El Condor were arrested together in Mazatlan in February 2014.
El Condor and El Fantasma have known each other since they both belonged to the Army.
El Fantasma is originally from Veracruz and, in addition to being a member of the military, he was an agent of the Culiacan Municipal Police.
On March 1, 2012, it was reported that El Fantasma was supposedly killed in a confrontation with members of the Navy in the town of Oso Viejo, in the Quilá syndicate.
According to the Navy, a group of agents were carrying out an operation in the area when an armored Cherokee van evaded a checkpoint and a ground and air pursuit began.
During the chase there was a shootout until the driver of the Cherokee lost control of the steering wheel and overturned.
There was one man in the vehicle who was left dead at the scene and another who was injured and was transported to a hospital where he died.
The man who died in the hospital was Jonathan Salas Avilés, who was believed to be El Fantasma, Chapo's security chief at the time.
After the confrontation, the then State Attorney General, Marco Antonio Higuera Gómez, announced that one of the deceased was allegedly El Fantasma.
EL FANTASMA. Early release, the motive.
Governor Mario López Valdez assured that the death of El Fantasma would bring "a little bit of peace and tranquility".
"I believe that more than bringing consequences, it should bring a little more peace and tranquility, because if things are like this, there will be someone less who will be in the state committing crimes," he said.
Days later, it was clarified that the person who had died was indeed Jonathan Aviles, but it was not El Fantasma.
It was later learned that the confusion arose because Marcelino supposedly used the name Jonathan Aviles to hide his true identity.
A year later, on February 9, 2013, the real El Fantasma was arrested in the Costa Rica syndicate, along with four of his bodyguards, in an operation in which not a single shot was fired.
The cartel leader was surprised in a house by members of the Navy in an operation that Semar considered "surgical.
As a hitman, El Fantasma entered the Culiacán Municipal Police several times to rescue members of his group.
In October 2008, municipal police arrested one of his hitmen for violations of the Bando de Policía y Gobierno (Police and Government Code).
Police officers said that the man warned them not to detain him, but the officers took him in a patrol car to the Culiacan Public Security and Municipal Transit Secretariat facilities in Bachigualato.
As soon as the agents arrived with the detainee, an armed group led by El Fantasma entered the facility and took the detainee away from the police officers and took him away.
The then Secretary of Public Security, Felipe Renault Rentería, and the mayor, Jesús Vizcarra Calderón, always denied that an armed group had entered the corporation's facilities and rescued a detainee.
According to police agents, this was not the only time El Fantasma went to rescue one of his men; he had done it before.
During his imprisonment at El Altiplano, El Fantasma, along with Héctor Beltrán Leyva, El H; Orso Iván Gastélum, El Cholo Iván; Héctor el Güero Palma and Servando Martínez, La Tuta, among others, filed appeals against the prison authorities.
The prisoners complained that the prison management was affecting their rights with measures such as restricting visits and the entry of their lawyers.
According to the federal government, El Fantasma was released by one of the judges accused of benefiting detainees by releasing them on weekends.
The Undersecretary of Security and Citizen Protection, Luis Rodríguez Bucio, said that between 2018 and 2024 there have been 192 cases of people deprived of liberty who were released on weekends, between Friday and Sunday, only 58 cases between Monday and Thursday.
He detailed that so far in 2024, a total of 21 people have been released on weekends, while between Monday and Thursday there have been 26.
"It is clear that something happens in the Judiciary and everyone wants or all the releases tend to be precisely on weekends, which is when somehow, for example, it is not possible to quickly check if any of those released has another case, another investigation file in a state prosecutor's office. He mentioned that there were 25 relevant cases and among them he mentioned that of El Fantasma.
Article published on July 28, 2024 in edition 1122 of the weekly Ríodoce.
