HomeNewsBriefLatest Jailbreak Points to Weakness of Mexico’s Prison System
BRIEF

Latest Jailbreak Points to Weakness of Mexico’s Prison System

EL CHAPO / 17 MAR 2017 BY LEONARDO GOI EN

The son of a prominent Mexican drug cartel leader has escaped prison less than two months after being captured, highlighting the country's inability to keep criminals behind bars.

Juan José Esparragoza Monzón, alias "El Negro," escaped from a Sinaloan state penitentiary in Culiacán on March 16, reported Animal Politico. Esparragoza Monzón is the son of Juan Esparragoza Moreno, known as "El Azul," a powerful leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, the drug trafficking organization formerly led by the legendary kingpin Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán who extradited to the United States in January.

Authorities believe Esparragoza Monzón has been working for the Sinaloa cartel for the past twenty years, under the instructions of his father. Reports indicate that El Azul has personally mediated some of the violent feuds between drug clans in the country, while his son allegedly worked as a financial operator for the cartel and was responsible for managing one of the group's drug trafficking routes, Animal Politico was told.

SEE ALSO: Sinaloa Cartel News and Profile

Esparragoza Monzón was captured on January 19, 2017. His name figured in the list of the government's 122 most wanted criminals, yet he managed to escape maximum security detention by successfully appealing to a federal district judge.

Security forces are currently trying to locate the fugitive, and the four other convicts who escaped with him. 

InSight Crime Analysis

Esparragoza Monzón's prison break shows further evidence that Mexican authorities are unable to guarantee criminals will serve the sentences they are given.

The fact that El Negro allegedly appeared on the government's hit-list and was nonetheless allowed to escape maximum security poses serious questions about whether or not Mexico's judicial system is up to its task. Commenting on the appeal made by Esparragoza Monzón to the district judge, the governor of Sinaloa, Gonzalo Gómez Flores, acknowledged the need to "revise the criteria with which these permissions are granted [to prisoners]."

SEE ALSO: Mexico News and Profiles

His escape also lends more credit to the argument that Mexico should extradite high profile criminals to the United States to face justice.

To be sure, Esparragoza Monzón's prison break is not the first to be recorded in the country, and certainly not the most famous. Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán was sent to prison three times and escaped twice, first in 2001 and then in 2015, via a tunnel built underneath his cell in the Altiplano maximum security penitentiary. Authorities resisted extraditing the kingpin after his first capture, but handed him over in January this year after his second escape proved one of the biggest embarassments so far for President Enrique Peña Nieto.

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

ECUADOR / 21 JUL 2022

Ecuador's complicated gang violence has been worsened by the bloody rise of R7, a small-time but brutal gang.

MEXICO / 9 JUN 2021

Over 90 percent of active personnel in Mexico’s National Guard remain uncertified two years after the police body’s creation, marking…

COLOMBIA / 21 MAR 2022

A top Colombian drug trafficker walked out of a maximum-security prison in Bogotá without ever being challenged, exposing deep-seated corruption…

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

Venezuela Coverage Receives Great Reception

27 MAY 2023

Several of InSight Crime’s most recent articles about Venezuela have been well received by regional media. Our article on Venezuela’s colectivos expanding beyond their political role to control access to…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Chemical Precursor Report Continues

19 MAY 2023

For the second week in a row, our investigation into the flow of precursor chemicals for the manufacture of synthetic drugs in Mexico has been cited by multiple regional media…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime’s Chemical Precursor Report Widely Cited

THE ORGANIZATION / 12 MAY 2023

We are proud to see that our recently published investigation into the supply chain of chemical precursors feeding Mexico’s synthetic drug production has been warmly received.

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime’s Paraguay Election Coverage Draws Attention 

5 MAY 2023

InSight Crime looked at the various anti-organized crime policies proposed by the candidates in Paraguay’s presidential election, which was won on April 30 by Santiago Peña. Our pre-election coverage was cited…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Cited in OAS, CARICOM Reports

28 APR 2023

This week, InSight Crime’s work was cited nine times in a new report by the Organization of American States (OAS) titled “The Impact of Organized Crime on Women,…