Leaders of 3 Mexican Drug Cartels Complain of Harrassment, Psychological Torture in Maximum-Security Prison
Members of the MS-13 and 18 gangs sit on the floor during a search operation at the maximum security prison in Izalco, Sonsonate, El Salvador, on September 4, 2020. - Authorities from the General Directorate of Penal Centres (DGCP) visited three Salvadorean prisons, some of maximum security, to check the situation of inmates and carry out searches amid the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic. YURI CORTEZ/AFP via Getty Images

Former leaders of three Mexican drug cartels, who are imprisoned at the Altiplano maximum-security federal prison in Mexico State, have filed a joint complaint about their current jail conditions.

The three leaders of Mexican drug cartels demanded protection because they claimed they were being harassed and psychologically tortured by the prison staff.

Leaders of Mexican Drug Cartels Experience Harassment and Psychological Torture in Mexico Prison

According to Mexico News Daily, the complainants were the former leader of the Knights Templar cartel in Michoacán Servando Gómez Martínez; Fernando Sánchez Arellano, the former leader of the Tijuana Cartel in Baja California; and former Gulf Cartel leader in Tamaulipas, Mario Cárdenas Guillén.

It was also signed by Javier Adrián Salazar Ortiz, a former head of the Los Zetas cartel; and Hugo Guerrero Encinas, a former member of the Sinaloa cartel, Milenio reported.

The judge who accepted the lawsuit junked the request of the Attorney General's Office to dismiss the case. The judge made it clear that in due course, the court "will issue the resolution that corresponds in law."

The head of the Federal Institute of Public Defense in Mexico State has appointed a public defense lawyer "to represent, guide or advise" the complainants.

The defender has already accepted and asserted the position of the complainants. In the next few days, the judge is expected to make a ruling that will define whether to proceed with the case.

Mexican Drug Cartel Leaders Turned Into Complainants

Mario Cárdenas Guillén, who is recognized by the aliases "M-1" and "El Gordo," served his first stint in prison from 1995 to 2007, and he was released after he finished his sentence.

Mario Cárdenas Guillén was arrested a second time in 2012 and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Servando Gómez Martínez, known as "La Tuta," was arrested in 2015.

He was charged with organized crime, drug trafficking offenses, and kidnapping. Gómez was sentenced to 55 years in prison in 2019 for the abduction of a businessman in 2011.

The Mexican drug cartel leader has faked a heart attack that allowed him to join Sinaloa cartel boss Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzman's second prison escape in 2015.

Known as "The Engineer," Fernando Sánchez Arellano was arrested in 2014 for money laundering.

Hugo Guerrero Encinas, known as "El 01," was reportedly a former lieutenant of Noel Salgueiro Nevarez, the founding leader of the group of hitmen called Gente Nueva of the Sinaloa cartel responsible for the killings in Chihuahua and Sonora.

Javier Adrián Salazar Ortiz, on the other hand, was the former head of the Los Zetas cartel in Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas.

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Written by: Jess Smith

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