Mexican authorities have released on bail the wife of one of the country’s most wanted drug lords, Nemesio Oseguera, boss of the powerful Jalisco New Generation Cartel, local media reported late on Friday.
Rosalinda Gonzalez, who in May was arrested on organized crime and money laundering charges, was freed from prison late on Thursday in the central state of Morelos, newspaper Reforma said, posting a video of what it said showed her release.
In the video, a woman in custody answering to her name is seen getting out of a vehicle and being discharged by an official. She then departs with a group of people waiting for her.
A spokesman for the Mexican attorney general’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Reforma said Gonzalez was granted release after bail of some 1.5 million pesos ($78,000) was paid, and still faced a money laundering trial. However, a judge had found insufficient evidence to prosecute her for organized crime, the paper added.
Last month, Mexican authorities said they were offering a 30 million peso reward for information leading to the capture of her husband Oseguera, who is known as “El Mencho”.
In March, U.S. agents in Chicago named El Mencho public enemy No. 1 and blamed his gang for using “extreme violence” to expand their share of the heroin trade. The United States is offering $5 million for information leading to his capture.
His drug cartel, which is often referred to by its Spanish initials, CJNG, has become one of the most feared in Mexico, helping to push homicides in the country to record levels.
The gang based in western Mexico is blamed for sending large quantities of crystal meth and heroin to the United States, and has for the past few years battled the Sinaloa Cartel of captured kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman for supremacy.
($1 = 19.3140 Mexican pesos)
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