A judge in Mexico ordered the release Friday of a man accused of illegal fishing that endangers the world’s smallest porpoise.
The arrest of Oscar Parra in September had been depicted as an advance in efforts to save the critically endangered vaquita marina, of which fewer than 30 remain. Instead, it has proved an embarrassment.
Police in Baja California state had claimed Parra was a lieutenant of the Sinaloa drug cartel who also oversaw fishing for totoaba, a fish that lives in the Gulf of California, around the port of San Felipe. The Gulf, also known as the Sea . . .
