Jesus Flores, “El Tio”, Implicated Enrique Alfaro Current Governor Of Jalisco In U.S. Drug Case

 ”Char” for Borderland Beat 

This article was translated and reposted from PROCESO

The arrest and prosecution of Hernandez Flores was particularly noteworthy, because at first they were linked to and even had accounts frozen with soccer player Rafa Marquez and singer Julion Alvarez. In the end, both were cleared of suspicion and only “El Tío” was extradited.

WRITTEN BY: ARTURO RODRIGUEZ GARCIA 

The arrest and prosecution of Hernandez Flores was particularly noteworthy because at first they were linked to and even had accounts frozen with soccer player Rafa Marquez and singer Julion Alvarez. In the end, both were cleared of suspicion and only “El Tío” was extradited.

With the prosecutor’s evidence and a confession, last January he was sentenced after a four-year litigation that began with his arrest in 2017, his extradition and, finally, a trial in which for collaborating with US authorities he got a reduction from life imprisonment to the aforementioned 21 years.

Within the proceedings of the case, specifically in his confession, Flores Hernández was the one who identified the Jalisco governor as part of his team of collaborators.

Alfaro was identified as being in charge of transporting money from Flores’ criminal activities under the pseudonyms “Santiaguito” and “Enriquito.

The account is unequivocal in its identification of “Santiaguito” or “Enriquito”. Alfaro is “right now the governor of Jalisco”.

The function that “El Tío” attributed to Alfaro corresponds more or less to 2003, precisely the year in which the current Jalisco state governor was a councilman in Tlajomulco.

According to prosecutors, Flores Hernandez worked independently, but under the protection of the so-called Sinaloa Cartel and in close relationship with Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, who allegedly recruited him and introduced him to drug trafficking. He also maintained business relationships with other capos of the time, such as the Beltrán Leyva brothers, before the breakup with Guzmán.

Under his cocaine trafficking operation, “El Tío” had his anchor in Jalisco, where he also built a network of businesses such as nightclubs, businesses, gas stations, real estate and a sports club known as Club Deportivo Morubi, which had a second division team: Los Guerreros de Autlán.

Last year, on March 8, 2023, “El Tio” pleaded guilty to conspiracy to traffic cocaine, knowing and intending that the substance would be illegally imported into the United States.

In his defense, Flores Hernandez argued that he was only responsible for the transfer of 450 kilograms of cocaine and not for the tens of thousands of kilograms attributed to him by the prosecution, as he was indeed attributed with numerous ways of smuggling drugs, including in oil tankers.

Flores Hernández did not obtain a plea agreement, but he presented a declaration and a brief specifying different activities, which finally, last January, he obtained the benefit of a sentence of 21 years in prison and not the life sentence originally requested by the prosecution.

SOURCE: PROCESO