Lucio R. Borderland Beat with C.E. Martinez
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| Fresco depicting images of Palma's wife and children adorn their;Culiacán tomb |
His partner Clavel, sent Palma his wife’s head, and threw Palma’s small children of a 500ft bridge….Palma went on a rampage of revenge, including killing Clavel’s three children….
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éctor Luis Palma Salazar (on BOP it is Jesus Hector Palma-Salazar) alias "El Güero Palma", was released from the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, after being incarcerated since 2007, when he was extradited from Mexico.With a good time deduction, he spent 85% of his sentenced in the U.S., that along with his prior incarceration in Mexico, he has already been imprisoned 20 years. And now he will spend an additional time in the Mexican prison system.
When the United States notified Mexico of Palma’s release date, Mexico’s attorney general
began investigating any “outstanding” charges spending against the former Sinaloa capo. This resulted in a request of the U.S. to directly hand over the transfer of custody of Palma to Mexican authorities. That occurred on Friday June 10th. Palma was then transferred to Puente Grande Prison in Jalisco, made famous by former partner Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, marking his first prison escape, folk lore has it, via a laundry basket.
When the United States notified Mexico of Palma’s release date, Mexico’s attorney general
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| Palma's gun (Mexico Narco Museum) |
Before his alliance with Guzman, he along with his sister’s boyfriend, Venezuelan trafficker, Rafael Enrique Clavel Moreno, started their own trafficking operation. Palma was then arrested in Arizona in 1978, spending 8 years in prison.
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After his release from U.S. custody, Palma discovered Clavel was having a romantic relationship with his wife, Guadalupe Leija Serrano. His wife took off with Clavel, along with Palma’s two young children.
Clavel forced Guadalupe to withdraw 7M USD from Palma’s bank account, then decapitated her, in San Francisco, California, sending her decapitated head to Palma.
That is something Palma himself did when killing an enemy, sending the decapitated head in an ice cooler to the victim’s family.
The horror was only beginning. Clavel then left to Venezuela with Palma’s children, Nataly, and Jesús. He then took the children to a bridge, “Puente de la Concordia”, on the Colombia and Venezuela border, and threw the children to their deaths. Clavel was then working with the Felix Arellano cartel of Tijuana.
Félix Gallardo, “El Padrino”, the Godfather and premier capo of trafficking, was arrested for the torture and murder of DEA agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena. He and his partners, Rafael Caro Quintero and Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo would be incarcerated for decades. He sensed an urgency to appoint two capos to oversee the cartel, the two were Palma and Guzman. A decision he was said to regret. Supposedly he gave the go ahead to execute Palma, due to his work on the sly for his own benefit. That order if true, is yet to happen. He is also attributed with giving the orders to kill Palma’s wife and children.
In the retaliation for his children’s murder, Palma executed Padrino’s attorney and Clavel’s three children. Palma’s revenge included the killing of 9 victims in Iguala Guerrero. Of the nine victims were four relatives of El Padrino. They were severally tortured and dismembered. Clavel was beheaded in prison, allegedly on the orders of Palma.
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Palma has a lengthy Mexican criminal record which is overwhelmingly shrouded by impunity. Of 23 cases of various charges, only 3 of those cases brought convictions. Those cases were in 1995, 1996, and 2001.
The first two cases were weapons charges and trafficking, and the third was for his collusion in the prison escape of Joaquin Guzman Loera on January 19, 2001, from the maximum security prison in Puente Grande, Jalisco. It was charged and convicted that he along with Chapo has conspired and corrupted prison staff.
The other 20 cases, were riddled with the most serious of offenses, including dozens of murders. He was exonerated by acquittal, overturned on appeal or tossed out due to lack of evidence.
In reviewing court records, it does seem to indicate that the murder charge of Norma Corona Sapien was never fully resolved. Norma, an attorney and founder/president of “The Human Rights Commission of Sinaloa”, was gunned down in downtown Culiacan on May 21, 1990.
Authorities allege Corona's death was ordered by Palma, because she had uncovered information connecting him to the murders of the Venezuelans and Clavel’s attorney.
Charges of murder in the Corona case were brought against Palma, but he successfully blocked the arrest warrant with and injunction. No further action was taken in the case. According to public records, it seems feasible that the case could once again be resurrected.