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| Inmate wanted in U.S. escapes from jail in Mexico |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 05/16/2005 |
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The alleged leader of a Guatemala-based drug trafficking organization sought by U.S. authorities has escaped from a Mexico City jail, authorities said Saturday. Officers noticed Otto Roberto Herrera Garcia was missing Friday evening, prompting an all-night search, authorities said. Mexico City authorities detained some 45 jail employees, including the facility's director. "The escape must have occurred in complicity with someone or some of the people in charge of security," said Jesus Zambrano, a spokesman for the Mexico City government. Before Herrera's arrest in April 2004 at Mexico City's airport, his gang allegedly moved tons of cocaine each month from Colombia to the United States through El Salvador, Guatemala and Mexico, according to the U.S. State Department. The escape of the 40-year-old Guatemalan comes after a series of embarrassing escapes and scandals in Mexico's prison system. A U.S. request to extradite Herrera on drug trafficking and organized crime charges has been on hold while Mexican officials considered appeals. Zambrano acknowledged that inmates in such high-profile drug cases are ordinarily held at maximum security prisons and said "it would be very strange that federal authorities did not request custody to have him in a high-security prison and had allowed that he stay here." |
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