The wife of one of Mexico’s most wanted drug lords has been released from prison on bail after paying a bond of almost 1.6 million pesos (US $82,000).
Rosalinda González Valencia was arrested in May on money laundering charges and accused of being the “administrator of the economic and legal resources” of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), considered by authorities to be Mexico’s most powerful drug gang.
Her husband, Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes, is the cartel’s leader.
A judge in Cuernavaca, Morelos, ordered Thursday that González be released from preventative custody upon payment of bail. Later the same day the accused left the federal women’s prison in the town of Coatlán del Río in the same state.
Bail conditions include reporting periodically to judicial authorities and she has been prohibited from leaving the country without authorization.
González will face trial at a later date on the money laundering charges but the judge ruled that there was insufficient evidence to prosecute her for organized crime.
The newspaper Milenio reported that Gonzalez’s legal team paid the 1,581,031-peso bail in cash with 3,162 500-peso bills, one 20-peso bill, one 10-peso coin and one 1-peso coin.
At least two of González’s brothers as well as her son are already imprisoned for cartel-related activities.
Abigael González Valencia, the former leader of the Cuinis criminal gang, was arrested in 2015 in Puerto Vallarta. Like his sister, he was also accused of managing the cartel’s finances. Another brother, José, was arrested in Brazil last December.
The governments of both Mexico and the United States last month raised the rewards offered for information leading to Oseguera’s arrest to a combined total of US $6.6 million.
The drug lord has been behind the expansion of the CJNG over the last three years, putting the organization in direct confrontation with rival gangs throughout the country, sparking violent turf wars for the control of territory that have cost countless lives.
Source: Milenio (sp)
