Exclusive: Mexican Border State Judge Under Official Review After ‘Suspicious’ Releases of Cartel Gunmen

PIEDRAS NEGRAS, Coahuila – A local judge faces a formal review of her decisions to release cartel members for suspicious reasons. One of those freed was a leading gunman who took part in last month’s large-scale invasion of Coahuila, which led to 23 deaths.

Last month, approximately 150 gunmen from the Cartel Del Noreste faction of Los Zetas rolled into Villa Union, clashing with police and shooting at the local city hall. Moments later, state police and CDN-Zetas fought in a series of shootouts that killed 17 gunmen and four officers. As the gunmen left the town, they kidnapped innocent civilians, including two local firefighters, who they reportedly killed in the aftermath.

Authorities later arrested more than a dozen gunmen and some collaborators. As part of the pending investigation, one of the leading shooters was previously arrested by Coahuila State Police. State Judge Maritza Flores then ruled the arrest illegal and ordered an immediate release. This week, officials required Maritza Flores to present herself before superiors in Saltillo as part of a review into her “suspicious” decisions, various law enforcement sources revealed to Breitbart Texas.

Police and court information obtained by Breitbart Texas from Investigation Case File # 1998/2019 revealed that earlier this year, Fuerza Coahuila agents arrested two suspects inside a house in Piedras Negras in the Palmas I neighborhood and seized 91 packets of methamphetamine and 53 packets of cocaine. However, when authorities prosecuted the case as documented by Penal Cause # 1230/2019, Judge Maritza Flores said the officers violated the rights of the suspects, declared their detention illegal, and ordered releases from custody. Judicial records revealed that one of the two freed took part in the CDN-Los Zetas invasion of Coahuila.

Maritza Flores is the same judge with a history of releasing members of the CDN-Zetas in her court. In late 2017, Maritza Flores ordered the release of 10 CDN hitmen behind a series of gruesome murders in Piedras Negras. Flores also ordered the release of a leading cartel assassin named  Jose Antonio “El Scarface” Hernandez Rangel who fled to Texas after carrying out several murders in in the same border city. U.S. authorities arrested and prosecuted the man on immigration charges before turning him over to Mexican counterparts for further criminal proceedings.

Editor’s Note: Breitbart Texas traveled to the Mexican States of Tamaulipas, Coahuila, and Nuevo León to recruit citizen journalists willing to risk their lives and expose the cartels silencing their communities.  The writers would face certain death at the hands of the various cartels that operate in those areas including the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas if a pseudonym were not used. Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles are published in both English and in their original Spanish. This article was written by “J.M. Martinez” from Coahuila.