The judicial controversy that has delayed the extradition of El Z40 and El Z42 to the United States
The federal government has 16 district judges in its sights for “delaying” the extradition of Miguel Ángel Treviño Morales, alias El Z40, and Omar Treviño Morales, El Z42, who were handed over to the United States on Thursday, citing reasons of “national security.”
According to court records, in more than seven years, the 16 federal judges named postponed on 36 occasions the hearings of the board of experts within the judicial processes that were carried out in Mexico for the last leaders of Los Zetas who remained imprisoned in the country.
In particular, the hearing for the resolution of the physiognomic identification of the accused was delayed nine times over three years.
The case is in the plenary session of the Federal Judicial Council, judicial sources consulted on the matter indicated.
This weekend, President Claudia Sheinbaum recalled that the current Secretary of the Interior, Rosa Icela Rodríguez, always denounced how judges released criminals.
“Rosa Icela said it many times, when she was Secretary of Security with President López Obrador, today Secretary of the Interior, also an extraordinary woman. She denounced many times, as Secretary of Security, that judges were dedicated to releasing criminals, that is what they did,” she said during a tour of Colima.
Last week, Attorney General Alejandro Gertz Manero described the arguments used to delay extradition as ridiculous and disproportionate.
“In the case of Z40 and Z42, they have been delaying the hearings for eight and 11 years and the whole argument is that they say it’s not them, that it is others, when we have all the procedures with the photographs, with the data and with everything,” she said.
The legal defense of Miguel Ángel Treviño Morales maintained in recent years a strategy consisting of denying that his client was one of the leaders of Los Zetas, arguing that he was a namesake.
“We can take a stand and tell you that the person who was arrested in July 2013, who does respond to the name of Miguel Angel Treviño Morales, isn’t Z-40, he doesn’t belong to the Los Zetas cartel nor is he the leader of any other criminal organization. There are more than seven judicial rulings that, as claim preclusion, frame this,” said attorney Juan Manuel Delgado in September 2014.
It took eight years to complete the extradition investigation
According to the documents consulted by MILENIO, since August 18, 2023, the heads of the Ministries of the Interior, Security and Citizen Protection, Foreign Affairs, Defense and Navy filed an administrative complaint against 16 judges of the Federal Judicial Branch, because, in more than eight years, they had not concluded the investigation stage of the extradition procedure, which should have lasted only a few months.
On January 15, 2024, the Federal Judicial Council determined the alleged administrative responsibility of the judges, within the preliminary investigation process, which was referred to the plenary session of the CJF.
On September 27, it was determined that there was no more evidence pending to be discharged, five business days were set for the parties to formulate their final arguments in writing and send it to the CJF, so that a council could prepare, in 30 more days, a draft resolution.
How were they arrested?
Miguel Ángel Treviño Morales, identified as El Z40, was arrested in July 2013, while he was driving a truck approximately 27 kilometers from Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas.
In March 2015, his brother Omar Treviño Morales was arrested in San Pedro Garza García, Nuevo León, one of the areas with the highest socioeconomic status in the country.
For each of the Treviño Morales brothers, the United States authorities offered a reward of five million dollars.
Source: Milenio
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