Tolín Infante, One Step Away From Extradition

Through a review appeal before a Collegiate Court in Oaxaca, Hector Eduardo Infante alias El Tolín Infante, alleged operator of the Sinaloa Cartel in Baja California, gains time to avoid being extradited to the US, after he was denied an injunction to prevent his extradition to the government of the neighboring country, where he will be tried for the charge of conspiracy to manufacture and distribute methamphetamine in a California Court.

Infante’s lawyer, Luis Edgar Herrera, was notified through an email of the ruling on January 20, the Court had just returned from winter vacation on the 16th. After learning of the setback that puts his client at risk of being sent to the United States, the lawyer immediately challenged the sentence. The injunction will be reviewed by magistrates of the Collegiate Court on Criminal and Labor Matters of the Thirteenth Circuit.

The amparo trial denied to Tolín Infante by the Eighth District Judge in the State of Oaxaca was filed on April 8, 2024 against acts of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other authorities, such as the International Extradition agreement issued on December 26, 2023, by which the extradition of the complainant to the Government of the United States of America was granted, to be prosecuted before the Federal District Court for the Central District of California, arising from the accusation against him for knowingly and internationally conspiring to manufacture, possess with intent to distribute, and distribute at least 50 grams of methamphetamine.

The man, currently detained in the Federal Social Reintegration Center (Cefereso) Number 13 CPS-Oaxaca, residing in San Bartolo Coyotepec, municipality of Miahuatlán de Porfirio Díaz, was arrested on July 2, 2022 after being shot when leaving a shopping center in Playas de Rosarito, Baja California.

One of his minor children – who was accompanying him at the time – was injured by a firearm projectile, while an alleged bodyguard lost his life.

Héctor Eduardo Infante is considered an important drug trafficker who operated for the Los Rusos criminal cell of the Sinaloa Cartel; However, in BC he was only linked to proceedings in a Specialized District Court in the Accusatory Criminal System of the Federal Criminal Justice Center in the State of Baja California, residing in Tijuana, for the crime of carrying a firearm for the exclusive use of the Army, since after the shooting he was transferred to a hospital, where a 9-millimeter caliber pistol was confiscated from him.

Tolín Infante miraculously saved his life,  those who wanted to kill him shot at least 300 times, but the mobster was able to take refuge in a white armored Dodge Ram pickup truck. Although the character’s health condition was reported as serious for several days, as soon as he was discharged, authorities sent him to the Tijuana Penitentiary, but given his high-risk profile characteristics, on October 17, 2022, he was transferred to the maximum security federal prison in Oaxaca. 

Josefina Herrera, a relative of Tolín, immediately filed two amparo lawsuits on behalf of Luis Edgar Herrera, apparently Tolín’s real name, one of these against a possible order of extradition, banishment or deportation; The other, for alleged acts of solitary confinement, segregation and mistreatment in Cefereso Number 13.

Unfortunately, the alleged drug trafficker tested positive for COVID-19, which meant he had to be transferred to Admission Unit One (UI1), where coronavirus patients are sent by security protocol of that prison complex. 

The first injunction against extradition caused a dismissal, it turns out that the matter was barely moving in the United States. On October 22 of that year, when the US federal prosecutor’s office filed a formal accusation against Héctor Eduardo Infante to be prosecuted before the Federal Court for the Central District of California, three days later the arrest warrant was issued against him for the charge described above.

According to the sworn statements of a special agent of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and an anonymous informant, Tolín Infante was involved in drug trafficking activities, such as founding a criminal organization that operated in Mexico and the United States, responsible for directing, managing and supervising drug trafficking activities. He was accused of being a co-conspirator of a subject named Miguel alias El Choco, who allegedly operated a methamphetamine laboratory for the defendant in the areas of Palmdale, Lancaster, Little Rock and Lake in Los Angeles, California.

In his sworn statement, the DEA special agent specified Tolín Infante’s identification data; in addition to including a photograph of the suspect and his fingerprints in the extradition request. Following the request of the US government to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE), the matter was referred to the Attorney General’s Office (FGR), which on January 9, 2023, requested the Specialized District Judge in the Accusatory Criminal System of the Federal Criminal Justice Center in the State of Oaxaca, for a provisional detention order for extradition purposes against the claimed individual. The court order was granted the following day, and a day after that, he was served with legal documents in Cefereso 13.

HE DEFENDED HIMSELF

In an informative hearing held on January 16, 2023, the Control Judge notified Héctor Eduardo Infante of the reason for the arrest at the request of the United States government, decreeing preventive detention as a precautionary measure. With the formal request for Tolín’s extradition, made the following February via diplomatic note, the judge determined on March 11 of that year to decree the formal detention of the defendant, informing him of the request of the US government, he will remain in Cefereso 13 Oaxaca at the disposal of the SRE.

On May 29 of that year, a Control Judge issued his legal opinion on the matter, declaring the extradition of Tolín Infante to be processed in California to be appropriate. Subsequently, on December 23, 2023, the Mexican Foreign Ministry declared the extradition of the defendant to be tried in the US to be in legal standing. Tolín Infante presented his disagreement through an amparo suit on April 8, 2024, where his defense argued that the requested extradition agreement violated his right to due process.

Infante’s lawyer stated in favor of his client: “… the evidence A and B attached to the formal extradition request, consisting of certified copies of the formal accusation and the arrest warrant, both dated October 26, 2022, only prove the existence of a formal accusation for one charge, and the existence of an arrest warrant against the complainant, but considers that the degree of reasonableness that the crime was committed for which the US government requests his extradition isn’t proven.

“He states that evidence D, relating to the sworn statement of January 27, 2023, of the special agent of the Drug Control Administration, turns out to be subsequent to the arrest warrant issued against him, without referring to the facts attributed to the complainant personally and directly or carrying out the investigations he refers to, in addition to the fact that the agent is not a witness so the facts are not directly known to him but he knew them through his activities as a special agent,” the litigant highlights in his statement of violated fundamental rights.

The defense formulated the argument that “… the charges to which the complainant will be subjected if his extradition is granted, carry a sentence of life imprisonment, the Mexican State should have guaranteed that the complainant will not be applied said sentence of life imprisonment, it is unconstitutional and violates Article 22 of the Constitution and the right to social reintegration.” He also stated that “…sufficient evidence or reasonable data wasn’t attached that a crime was committed and that there is a probability that the complainant committed it or participated in its commission, as if the events had occurred in national territory.”

Tolín Infante’s legal team considers that the charges are not supported by evidence against him, so the extradition agreement lacks foundation and motivation, in addition to the fact that “…in our country there is no conspiracy in matters of crimes against health.” However, the Amparo Judge estimated that it’s not required that the crime for which extradition is requested has the same name in both countries, or that there is identity between the elements that make up the criminal types in each State, “but only that in the laws of both nations, a punishment is provided for said crimes committed in similar circumstances, and that the prison sentence is not less than one year.”

In this case, the equivalent of the charge brought in the United States in Mexico is that of criminal association to manufacture and possess with the intent to distribute methamphetamine, for which reason the Eighth District Judge in the State of Oaxaca denied the complainant the protection of federal justice on December 30, 2024. After Tolín Infante and his lawyer were notified, an appeal for review was filed, which for the time being continued to halt the extradition on January 21.

Source: Zeta Tijuana