Mexican army: 4 men in rights case have links to Sinaloa cartel

 

CMDPDH, CCDHN and OMCT submitted the case to the United Nations, which has still not decided whether or not to accept it. EFE/File

Tijuana, Mexico, Apr 3 (EFE).- The four Mexican citizens whose families have taken their case to the U.N. Committee Against Torture, or CAT, have links to a criminal organization run by Angel Jacome Gamboa, a Sinaloa cartel member, the army said.
The four suspects were holding a captive when they were arrested nearly three years ago, 2nd Military Region commander Gen. Alfonso Duarte told Efe.
The men were arrested on June 16, 2009, by soldiers during operations in the cities of Tijuana and Rosarito, both located in Baja California state.
The four men were detained three months after Gamboa was arrested at a party in Tijuana, a border city located near San Diego, California.
Brothers Ramiro and Rodrigo Ramirez Martinez were arrested along with Orlando Santaolaya in Tijuana, while Ramiro Lopez Vasquez was detained in Rosarito.
Ramiro Ramirez Martinez has been linked to several murders, including the killing of police officer Christian Castro, as well as various kidnappings.
Army troops seized 17 rifles, four handguns, 278 ammunition clips, 14,642 rounds of ammunition, three vehicles and 27 bullet-proof vests from the suspects, the Defense Secretariat said.
The Mexican Commission for the Defense and Promotion of Human Rights, or CMDPDH, the Citizens Committee of the Northwest for Human Rights, or CCDHN, and the World Organization Against Torture, or OMCT, submitted the case on March 16 to the United Nations, which has still not decided whether or not to accept it.
The four men were arrested by soldiers wearing hoods, tortured and kept under preventive arrest in private residences, relatives say.
Military authorities in Baja California have denied the allegations, while Gen. Duarte said he was unaware that the charges had been presented to the U.N.
The Sinaloa organization, sometimes referred to by officials as the Pacific cartel, is the oldest and most powerful drug cartel in Mexico.
Cartel boss Joaquin "El Chapo" (Shorty) Guzman, considered extremely violent, is one of the most-wanted criminals in Mexico and the United States, where the Drug Enforcement Administration is offering a reward of $5 million for him.
Guzman, who was born in 1957 in La Tuna, Sinaloa, was arrested in Guatemala in 1993 and pulled off a Hollywood-style jailbreak when he escaped from the Puente Grande maximum-security prison in the western state of Jalisco on Jan. 19, 2001.
Forbes magazine estimates that Guzman has a fortune of more than $1 billion, making him one of the richest people in the world.
The Sinaloa cartel, according to intelligence agencies, is a transnational business empire that operates in the United States, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, the Americas and Asia.

   Copiado : http://www.efe.com/