Hector Luis 'El Guero' Palma Salazar, Who Founded Sinaloa Cartel With El Chapo, Taken to Hospital in Mexico
Hector Luis "El Guero" Palma Salazar, who founded the Sinaloa Cartel with Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Loera, was taken to a hospital in Toluca in the State of Mexico. PEDRO PARDO/AFP via Getty Images

Hector Luis "El Guero" Palma Salazar, who founded the Sinaloa Cartel with Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Loera, was taken to a hospital in Toluca in the State of Mexico.

According to Borderland Beat, a convoy of National Guard and Army units took the Sinaloa Cartel founder from the Altiplano prison to the Adolfo Lopez Mateos Medical Center on Thursday afternoon. The National Guard and the military personnel reportedly guarded an armored vehicle that arrived at the hospital around 5:20 p.m.

Infobae reported that El Guero Palma got out of the vehicle on his own and walked into the medical facility. According to Milenio, there was no information about his illness or why he was brought to a hospital.

However, Mexican journalist Carlos Jimenez said El Guero Palma went to the hospital and stayed there for about 20 minutes for a routine check-up.

Arrest of Sinaloa Cartel Boss and El Chapo's Pal, Hector Luis 'El Guero' Palma Salazar

Hector Luis "El Guero" Palma Salazar was one of the founders of the Sinaloa Cartel, maneuvering the drug cartel's operation with now-imprisoned El Chapo. He was arrested in Mexico in 1995 and served 12 years in Mexico on bribery and weapons charges before he was extradited to the U.S. in 2007.

The Sinaloa Cartel founder served nine years of a 16-year sentence in the U.S. for cocaine trafficking before being sent back to Mexico, where his trial on the charges he was acquitted of was held.

El Guero Palma was released from the maximum-security prison of the Altiplano in May 2021 but re-arrested minutes later outside of the jail facility due to an outstanding arrest warrant.

When he was re-apprehended for drug and organized crime charges, El Chapo's pal asked to have his re-apprehension declared illegal since the process was full of irregularities.

However, a court junked his appeal in November of the same year, saying his re-apprehension was legal and "the responsible authorities acted in accordance with the law."

Tragic Life of Sinaloa Cartel Founder Hector Luis 'El Guero' Palma Salazar

The Sinaloa Cartel and the Tijuana Cartel had a violent rivalry in the early 1990s, marking Mexico's first major narco war. When Tijuana Cartel boss Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo was arrested, his nephews, the Arellano Felix brothers, led the cartel.

The Sinaloa Cartel was then led by Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada. The battle between the Sinaloa Cartel and the Tijuana Cartel intensified after El Chapo and Hector Luis "El Guero" Palma Salazar tried to kill Ramon Eduardo Arellano Felix at a nightclub in Puerto Vallarta.

But the botched attempt hit and killed six others instead. The violence had spilled over into the lives of the cartel families when the Arellano Felix brothers ordered a hitman to seduce El Guero Palma's wife.

The hitman has successfully completed his mission by killing El Guero Palma's wife. He then sent her head to him in a refrigerated box. The Sinaloa Cartel founder had also received a videotaped showing the death of his two children, being thrown off in a 150-meter high bridge in Venezuela.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Mary Webber

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