In total, the members of the drug gang of “el Gringo” were sentenced to 969 years in prison! Umaña Gómez and Díaz Noreña, the leaders, received 146 and 126 years, but these were reduced to the maximum sentence of 50 years. Cristel Gómez Espinoza, “Queen of the South,” was sentenced to 19 years. Of the 24 defendants, the lowest sentences were for 10 and 11 years. All were sentenced to one year of preventive detention while the sentences become final.
Because of the number of people being tried, the types of crimes, and the complexity of the case, the hearing involved four judges instead of the usual three and it was held in the auditorium of the Judicial Investigation Organization with 100 officers from the Public Force and the OIJ present to contain any potential violence.
During the reading of the sentences, some defendants started to insult the judges. One screamed a death threat and was removed from the auditorium. Many shouted that they had been sentenced because of pressure from the press. They insisted some of the defendants are innocent. Even a lawyer got into an altercation with a guard, saying they had no right to touch him and that he was just making sure they weren’t mistreating his client.
The trial that ended in this riot started over a year ago based on an investigation that started in 2017. Phones were tapped and drugs and weapons seized. Some defendants took plea deals for lesser sentences.
Cristel Gómez’s lawyer will appeal the decision because she was sentenced to 19 years based on the idea that she was the drug supplier but there wasn’t evidence of this. She is found to have left her house with less than a kilo of cocaine and trying to coordinate an activity that never materialized. If that is the case, the sentence should be 8 years, he says.
