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| Caribbean-Latin America |
| Sonora: State prison system under investigation |
| 2011-01-08 |
| A total of 13 prison officials have been ordered to preventative detention following the murder of a newly appointed prison system director, and a prison break in Sonora in December, according to Mexican news reports. Valencia Ortiz Erastus was shot to death last Monday in Hermosillo, Sonora less than two weeks after on the job following the firing of Saul Torres Millan December 22nd, 2010. Saul Torres Millan was removed as director of the Sonoran state prison system on suspicions of corruption. He was later ordered into preventaive detention January 5th. Preventative detention, colloquially known as "rooting", permits prosecutors to detain persons without charge suspected of serious crimes for up to 40 days. Although the legal maneuver is routinely granted in serious crimes, a judge is required to order the detention. It is used by prosecutors to gain time needed to investigate the detainee. Since that time Policia Federal units raided Centros de Readaptacion Social (CERESO) at Guayama and in Hermosillo to secure the facilities and to search for drugs and weapons. Close to 600 Mexican Federal agents took over the prison in Hermosillo, closing down adjacent bulevar De los Ganaderos and other streets near the facility. The former director of the CERESO, Rodolfo Castillo Alvarez, is a fugitive. Rafael Rivera Escobar, the security director at the Hermosillo facility was placed in preventative detention December 23rd. In Guayamas, 400 Mexican Federal agents executed a search warrant on the CERESO where more than 580 men and women are housed. |
| Posted by:badanov |
| #1 Are the "Investigators" any more honest? I Doubt it. |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2011-01-08 05:54 |