Héctor ‘El Güero’ Palma, founder of the Sinaloa Cartel, will be released after 28 years in prison

• El Chapo Guzmán’s former partner will be released from prison.
• Héctor ‘El Güero’ Palma spent almost three decades behind bars.
• He was in prison in Mexico and the United States.

Héctor Luis Palma, alias ‘El Güero’, is considered the founder of the Sinaloa Cartel together with Joaquín ‘El Chapo‘ Guzmán Loera, in the late eighties. Before working with the most wanted capo in the US and Mexico he was a member of the Guadalajara Cartel.

El Chapo’s former partner has spent almost three decades behind bars in Mexico and the United States. Now, it’s been reported that Héctor Palma, will be released.

Héctor ‘El Güero’ Palma is being released from prison

Infobae reported that early on Wednesday, May 10, Judge María Dolores Olarte Ruvalcaba of the First Collegiate Court of Appeal of Jalisco, ordered El Güero’s release.

This occurred after it was reported that the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) did not have sufficient evidence link him to organized crime.

El Chapo’s ex-partner could be released after 28 years in prison

According to Infobae, María Dolores Olarte Ruvalcaba stated that «the necessary steps are taken in order to immediately release Jesús Héctor Palma Salazar or Héctor Luis Palma Salazar alias ‘El Güero Palma,'» because she said prosecutors did not have sufficient evidence.

El Güero is currently being held in the Altiplano Prison. He had been released briefly in 2021.

Magistrate of the First Collegiate Court of Appeal of Jalisco requested the release order

On May 4 of that same year, Héctor Luis Salazar was released from Almoloya de Juárez but he was immediately re-arrested by federal agents and sentenced again, according to infobae.

This new resolution, which was handled in a drastic and abrupt way, has to do with an amparo that El Güero obtained at the end of April 2023. It was declared that the trial against him wouldn’t go forward because the FGR was unable to locate or present the two protected witnesses they had.

Who is Héctor Luis Salazar Palma?

But who is Héctor Palma? According to Milenio, El Chapo’s former partner is originally from Sinaloan town of Noria de Abajo. He also worked for capo Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo in the defunct Guadalajara Cartel after being a car thief.

After the break in the Guadalajara Cartel, Héctor Luis Salazar founded the Sinaloa Cartel with Joaquín Guzmán Loera. That cartel is currently the main distributor of fentanyl in the US. El Güero has been detained since 1995. He was in the Puente Grande prison for almost 12 years, five of which he served with El Chapo. He was extradited to the United States in 2007 and was taken to the ADX Florence prison.