Two Sinaloa inquiries remain open on Dámaso Castro
By Cartel Insider Wire Desk · Edited by Mica Treviño
Original reporting: El Diario de Chihuahua
What happened
Claudia Zulema Sánchez Kondo says internal proceedings cover U.S. accusations and the account of Cuén’s killing, while federal prosecutors handle the criminal investigation.
Reporting and context
Sinaloa’s state prosecutor’s office has two administrative investigations open involving former deputy prosecutor Dámaso Castro, according to El Diario de Chihuahua. State prosecutor Claudia Zulema Sánchez Kondo said the internal control body is examining the U.S. allegations against him and the alleged staging of the account of Héctor Melesio Cuén’s killing.
Sánchez Kondo said the internal proceedings concern Castro’s conduct while he was an active member of the institution. One inquiry follows U.S. government accusations made in late April that he acted as a facilitator for the Sinaloa Cartel’s Los Chapitos faction.
El Diario de Chihuahua reported that the other inquiry concerns the account that presented Cuén’s killing as the result of a robbery at a gasoline station. Cuén was a former rector of the Autonomous University of Sinaloa. Sánchez Kondo distinguished the internal control body’s administrative proceedings from the criminal investigation, which she said is being handled by the federal Attorney General’s Office.
Castro requested unpaid leave on May 5 after the U.S. accusations. He formally resigned on November 5, when that six-month leave ended, the newspaper reported.
Original reporting: El Diario de Chihuahua.