Story By: Maja Mishevksa, Sub Editor: Marija Stojkoska, Agency: Newsflash
The niece of the drug lord who founded the Sinaloa Cartel with El Chapo and her mum have been kidnapped by an armed group while shopping.
Maria Jimena Palma Romero, 32, and her mother Cintia Mercedes Romero Verdugo, 52, were kidnapped by four men in the city of Ciudad Obregon in the north-western Mexican state of Sonora.
Both women were related to Hector Palma Salazar, alias ‘El Guero’, former leader of the Sinaloa Cartel and close friend of drug lord Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman.
According to prosecutors, the victims left their home at around 5pm in a Ford Kia and when they failed to return, concerned relative went to the shopping centre to track them down.
It was later established that they had been abducted by an armed group, according to reports.
The alleged incident took place on 30th December, but local media are reporting on it now when the prosecution shared pictures of the two women, explaining that no further information has surfaced since they disappeared nearly two months ago.
According to reports, CCTV footage shows the victims being led to a van outside the shopping centre at gunpoint.
Palma Salazar was considered one of the most powerful drug traffickers in Mexico during the 1980s and 90s.
Reports said that he was hired as a hitman in the 1970s by drug trafficker Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo. As a young El Chapo also worked for the same man, the pair soon became close friends.
They founded the Sinaloa Cartel towards the end of the 1980s.
Palma Salazar was arrested on 23rd June 1995 and extradited to the United States where he served a jail sentence until June 2016.
He was then deported back to Mexico in June 2016, where he was charged with a double murder in 1995 and he is currently incarcerated at Altiplano Prison near Mexico City.
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