Spike for Borderland Beat translated from Zeta Tiajuana Article
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Near 9 o'clock on the evening of Wednesday, December 17, Manuel Garibay Espinoza was released from the Center for Social re-adaptation in San Luis Rio Colorado, only four years and six months after his arrest in Mexicali Valley in June 2010.
Garibay Espinoza has been the head of a gang of organized crime that operated for years in the southeastern part of the Valley of Mexicali. This linked in the mid 80's to the Arellano Felix Cartel, he was arrested in Arizona and became a protected witness, then returned to Mexico to get involved with the Sinaloa Cartel.
In the Mexicali Valley a wave of murders were attributed to the group "Los Garibays" , their centre of operations being a ranch called Pescaderos, in the Chiapas Ejido. In 2002 there was a strong operation by the State Attorney's office looking for clandestine graves in that area.
The group was presumably responsible for the death of seven sinaloans - in June 1999 - apparently part of a rival gang, the same group carried out the kidnapping and murder of a farmer's called Larios, as well as the execution of a police officer called Federico Alvidrez, who had been investigating a series of robberies to packing houses in the Valley. In July 2004, the Garibay group also killed the Commander of the Ministerial police, Humberto Armenta.
In March 2002, the Chief of police in San Luis Rio Colorado, Luis Antonio Pineda Rodriguez were riddled with bullets outside their homes, attributing the crime to Manuel Garibay, who had been arrested by the police chief a week before.
After that Garibay disappeared from the area, but the leadership was taken over by his son, Manuel Garibay Espinoza, alias "El Gordo", who was arrested in Los Angeles, California and transferred to the Prison of Puente Grande, Jalisco, Mexico where he was released on 12 June 2012. On February 21, "El Gordo" was murdered in Zapopan, Jalisco.
Manuel Garibay Espinoza was arrested by elements of the State preventive police on 24 June 2010, but was moved to the Federal Center for Social rehabilitation No. 3 in Tamaulipas. On 7 May this year he was released by federal Justice -as they did not have sufficient evidence to try him - and he was transferred to Tijuana where he was received by elements of violent homicide unit, certified medically and carried to the center of Social re-adaptation of medium security known as the fungus El Hongo, in Tecate.
They accused him of aggravated kidnapping and murder and is on record in the mixed Court of Morelos city of which he was also exonerated . He was then transferred to the Prison of San Luis Rio Colorado, since the only valid charge was the murder of the head of the municipal police of San Luis Rio Colorado.
But on 17 September last , a criminal court based in San Luis Río Colorado Sonora and headed by judge Luis Alberto Escalante Flores declared his freedom. They accused him of homicide with premeditation and treachery against the police chief Rodriguez Pineda, but the judge acquitted him according to record 300/2004, so Garibay Espinoza was free the same night.