How an anti-drug operation in Mexico became the story of an American kidnapping

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Over the past two weeks, Mexican and U.S. authorities have reported in dribs and drabs the results of a joint anti-drug operation, which began with a focus on opiate trafficking and ended with the release of a U.S. citizen who had been held captive for a year in Sinaloa.

According to U.S. authorities, suspected Mexican criminals kidnapped the individual in January 2020. In a statement released Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Justice expressed “relief” at the hostage’s release. It noted that agents removed more than $1 million worth of heroin and fentanyl from the streets.

Neither the Mexican nor the U.S. authorities have reported the time period of the operation. In a statement released on March 7th, the Mexican Attorney General’s Office (FGR) had reported that agents of the institution rescued the kidnapped person from a house in Culiacán.

On the day of the release, the agents searched three houses in the Sinaloa capital. In one, they arrested “Óscar G.”, who was allegedly guarding the hostage, of whom no further details were given. In another, they apprehended “Luis C.” with a firearm. In the third, they arrested “Ericka Q.”. The woman was also found with a quarter of a kilo of heroin.

In its press release, the FGR only added that a judge had sent the three to prison while the process against them begins. There was no news of the case for weeks until yesterday when the US Department of Justice revealed that one of them, Luis C., is said to be the ringleader of the criminal network. The man is actually Luis Castro Valenzuela, linked to the Sinaloa cartel.

The U.S. authorities accuse him of having organized the kidnapping and establishing a heroin and fentanyl trafficking network between Sinaloa, Delaware, and Pennsylvania.

In the indictment, the US Attorney’s Office accuses Castro Valenzuela of “conspiring to distribute controlled substances” in the country from 2017 to 2020. The substances in question are fentanyl and heroin. Investigators link the Mexican national to Jamar Jackson, alias Jay, the alleged ringleader of the United States network.

Prosecutors say Castro Valenzuela allegedly organized the kidnapping and forced Jackson to sell his drugs to pay the ransom. To date, the circumstances of the kidnapping are unknown, whether it took place in Mexico or the United States, or whether the hostage was transferred from one country to the other.

Delaware District Attorney David C. Weiss highlighted the “unprecedented collaboration between local, state, U.S. federal and Mexican federal officials” in the DOJ statement. Weiss added that cases such as this demonstrate “what can be accomplished when multiple agencies work selflessly toward a single goal.” He also expressed his “deep appreciation to Mexican prosecutors, law enforcement and military personnel for their crucial assistance.”

Without normalizing the relationship between the two countries’ security agencies, the operation and Weiss’ words appear to be a welcome change from the Cienfuegos affair. At the end of last year, the US justice system arrested General Salvador Cienfuegos in Los Angeles for drug trafficking. The prosecution accused the general, Secretary of Defense during the government of Enrique Peña Nieto (2012-2018), of collaborating with a criminal network with a Mexican Pacific presence.

In an unprecedented diplomatic offensive, the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador demanded the U.S. show its evidence against the general and transfer him to Mexico to be investigated in his own country. The government of Donald Trump agreed to take the general out of prison and sent him to Mexico. Weeks later, the FGR reported that after studying the evidence, the case did not hold up.

The evidence sent to Mexico consisted of hundreds of messages allegedly exchanged between Cienfuegos and the criminal network. And just as many messages from the alleged criminals talking about the general.

While there were criticisms across the board – against the FGR, against the government’s diplomatic effort, against the growing power of the military in Mexico – they all paled in the face of the barrage of public opinion against the evidentiary standards of the U.S. authorities.

López Obrador harshly criticized the neighboring country’s justice system and announced that they would review foreign agents’ presence in the country.

Months after that, with another president in the White House and bilateral relations still to be configured, the Valenzuela case seems to indicate that both countries’ security agencies continue to collaborate. At least by inertia.

Source: El País