The legislature of the Mexican state of Sinaloa halted a petition filed by the governor requesting the payment of a pension to a retired police chief who is a fugitive wanted by the United States Department of Justice.
On Tuesday, officials with the Sinaloa State Legislature held a news conference in which they revealed that the petition had been halted while various committees reviewed it carefully, Sinaloa’s Rio Doce reported.
As Breitbart Texas reported, the acting governor of Sinaloa had filed the petition on behalf of Alberto Jorge Contreras, the former head of the State Investigations Agency, who had retired from his post in February. His retirement began just weeks before the U.S. Department of Justice announced that he and nine others, including current Sinaloa Governor Ruben Rocha Moya, had been criminally indicted on drug trafficking conspiracy charges for working with the Chapitos faction of the Sinaloa Cartel.
Since being indicted, Sinaloa Governor Ruben Rocha Moya took leave from his post and named Yeraldine Bonilla Valverde as the acting governor. Bonilla Valverde then requested that Contreras’ pension be paid.
According to a report by Rio Doce, state legislators revealed that while they were reviewing the request for the retired police chief’s pension, they had not received any documentation from the U.S. government regarding the alleged criminal activity and, as such, were unable to take that issue into consideration. The Mexican news publication reported that Contreras has also filed various injunctions in an attempt to obtain his pension. The monthly pension is valued at 67,000 pesos, or approximately $3,800 USD.
The criminal indictment filed against Contreras revealed that he was receiving a monthly payment of 300,000 pesos, or roughly $17,000 USD, for allowing Los Chapitos to operate with impunity in Sinaloa.
The criminal indictment against Rocha Moya and his associates, including Contreras, has sparked much tension between the Trump administration and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum. The Mexican president has publicly defended the Sinaloa governor and questioned the credibility of U.S. agencies, claiming there is no proof of wrongdoing. Sheinbaum hails from the same political party as Rocha Moya, who is a close friend and ally of her mentor and the founder of the MORENA party, former Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart News Foundation. He co-founded Breitbart News Foundation’s Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com.
Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart News Foundation’s Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com.