One of the founders of the infamous Mexican Sinaloa drug cartel which flooded the US with hundreds of tons of cocaine has been absolved of organised crime charges by a Mexican judge and is now likely to be released.

In a statement obtained by Newsflash, the Mexican Secretary of Foreign Relations announced that the now 80-year-old former leader of the infamous Sinaloa drug cartel Hector Palma Salazar was absolved of organised crime charges by the Second District Court of Federal Criminal Proceedings on Saturday (1st May).

Salazar, who is better known as ‘El Guero Palma’, has been held at the Altiplano prison which El Chapo famously tunnelled his way to freedom from since 2016.

The judge has ordered the immediate release of El Guero if no other court brings charges against him for a separate crime.

Palma’s was first arrested in 1978 in Arizona for trafficking cocaine for which he was sentenced to eight years in prison.

After being released from prison in the US, Palma returned to Mexico and in 1988 he became the leader of the Sinaloa drug cartel alongside Joaquin Guzman Loera alias ‘El Chapo’.

Under their leadership, the Sinaloa cartel became the most powerful cartel in Mexico.

The United States Attorney General’s office estimates that the cartel trafficked 200 Tons (400,000 lbs) of cocaine into the US between 1990-2008.

Palma was arrested for the second time on On June 23, 1995, by Mexican authorities who then extradited him to the United States after he pleaded guilty to cocaine trafficking and received a 16-year-prison sentence.

In the US he served nine years at the Atwater high-security federal prison in California and in 2016 he was sent back to Mexico.

After returning to Mexico he was charged with the murder of two Mexican police officers in 1995 and has since been held at the Altiplano facility.

The Mexican Secretary of Foreign Relations has said that the United States government has been contacted to check if they have an outstanding extradition charge against Palma.

They added that the prosecutor’s offices in all 32 Mexican state are currently checking that they have no outstanding charges against Palmas.

The Secretary of Foreign Relations expects to receive a reply from the US attorney general and the 32 prosecutors this week and if no new charges are levelled against Palma he is expected to be freed.