Kidnappings, murders and beheadings: the black history of “El Neto” that earned him two centuries of sentence

The first day of 2023 began as a cataclysm for Ciudad Juárez. “The Net”, a capo sentenced to two centuries in prison for a long list of crimesHe had waited for that moment with several of his relatives.

Since early morning hundreds of people were already lining up outside the State Center for Social Reintegration (Cereso) No. 3 to visit their relatives on the occasion of the festive dates.

Nobody imagined what was to come. At seven o’clock in the morning several inmates allied with “El Neto”, armed with large-caliber rifles, they took one of the custodians hostage and forced him to activate the maximum alert protocol.

Only the members of the immediate reaction patrol, made up of nine elements equipped with long weapons, who at that moment were watching the outside of the prison, all the other custodians of the Cereso possessed weapons with rubber bullets.

At the same time that the officers of the immediate reaction patrol entered the center, between five and six vehicles with tinted windows – which had been parked on the outskirts for an hour earlier – they fired at the personnel who were in the access booths and unleashed panic among the visitors.

At that same moment, detonations were heard inside the Cereso, whose intensity increased intermittently. Besides, To distract the authorities, the occupants of several vehicles unleashed shootings in at least three neighborhoods in Ciudad Juárez.

Inside the Cereso the nine members of the reaction patrol soon found themselves overwhelmed. “El Neto” and his men they subdued them, gathered them together, tied them up and gagged them before murdering them, according to witnesses, with “indescribable viciousness.”

No one dared to enter the area where “El Neto” was being held. An operation made up of the Army, the National Guard and all the state and municipal corporations was necessary. But it had already been too late, because “El Neto” and about twenty of his men had already escaped.

The only thing the authorities found there was a VIP area with television, jacuzzi, bar, a safe with 1.7 million pesos, 16 kilos of marijuana, 1.5 kilos of heorin, four kilos of glass and four short weapons.

Ernesto Alfredo Piñón de la Cruz, better known as “El Neto”, 32 years old, was admitted to Cereso No. 3 on June 6 for the crime of kidnapping. In 2009, when he was captured, he was going to be transferred to a federal prison but thanks to an amparo he was relocated to the Ciudad Juárez prison.

In 2007, at just 18 years old, he had already been identified as a dangerous criminal, leader of a gang dedicated to robbery, kidnapping and murder in the state of Chihuahua.

Last August there was another riot in the prison, together with a series of coordinated actions in the city (shootings and burning of establishments) in order to prevent his transfer to a federal prison. That day was known asblack thursday” and left eleven fatalities.

He is the leader of the Mexicles Special Forces. At the time, he was arrested for various murder charges and at least thirty kidnappings. For these crimes he faced a sentence of 224 years in prison.

He is remembered as a ruthless boss who He ordered the shipment of heads to his victims in coolers labeled with the initials FEM. Also from the Ciudad Juárez Piñón de la Cruz prison he ordered extortions, kidnappings and riots.

In 2010, one day before the sentence against him was issued, a group of “Los Mexicles” tried to free him by attacking the convoy that was taking him to his audience.

But that time “El Neto” was injured and the plan failed completely. Today, however, after a new escape attempt, “El Neto” emerged unscathed and is again on the streets.

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