Anonymous - 2-9-2003 at 08:14 PM
Mexico City, Feb 05, 2003 (EFE via COMTEX) -- The leader of the Tijuana drug cartel, one of Mexico's top narcotics smugglers, has been absolved in
another drug-trafficking case, making him three-for-three in not guilty verdicts to date, the local press reported Wednesday.
Benjamin Arellano Felix was cleared Tuesday in one of the cases related to cocaine and marijuana trafficking, the reports said.
A federal court in Toluca, the capital of Mexico state, cited "lack of evidence" in absolving Arellano Felix, who was arrested on March 9, 2002, in
Puebla.
The latest court decision also cleared Arellano Felix's alleged right-hand man, Ismael Higuera "El Mayel," considered the operations chief of the
cartel.
Arellano Felix's attorney, Americo Delgado, told Reforma daily that the prosecution's arguments were unsustainable because they were based on hearsay
evidence given by protected witnesses.
The reputed head of the cartel, who has another three cases pending, was previously acquitted in the 1993 murder of Cardinal Jesus Posadas Ocampo, due
to "inconsistencies" in the evidence presented against him.
Posadas Ocampo died on May 24, 1993 at Guadalajara airport, allegedly from the crossfire in a shootout between gunmen from Arellano Felix's
organization and a rival drug cartel.
Arellano Felix is being held in a maximum-security prison and also faces charges of criminal conspiracy and arms trafficking and smuggling.
Via: http://www.efe.es