It happened on Sunday night May 4. They realized the absence of Sául Francisco Hernández at the Center for Social Reintegration Hermosillo (Cereso) 1, where he remained deprived of liberty, until the next day, during the list pass, according to the Sonora Prosecutor’s Office. However, they did not report it until Tuesday, May 6, at night, that the Ponchis, leader of the Salazar and “main generator of violence” in that state, escaped from the prison, just 39 days after his capture.
His arrest, on March 25, was announced in style by the governor of Sonora, Alfonso Durazo, who presumed “an accurate blow against organized crime.” He did it through a press release on the website of his administration, on his own on the social network X and for the official Facebook page of the Government. Even the Ministry of Citizen Security, at the head of Omar García Harfuch, which referred to Ponchis as “one of the 10 main objectives of the United States,” the achievement retweeted. Today, the link that redirects the statement is not available, as well as there is no trace of the tweet and publications that extolled “an important achievement for security” in that entity.
It was the United States Drug Control Administration (DEA), which advanced the news to Telemundo two days ago, according to Middle Media, which could not obtain a statement or confirmation of the Sonora Government on the escape of the Pochis until this Tuesday night, through a brief announcement of the then Secretary of Public Security of Sonora, Víctor Hugo Enriquez.
Hernández’s escape highlights the irregularities to the interior of Cereso 1 of Hermosillo, which has been evaluated among the best 10 prison centers in the country, with a 7.46 rating in the national diagnosis of penitentiary supervision of 2019. According to the Prosecutor’s Office, Hernández received three visits on May 4 at night. “He had a pisteada and came guests,” says journalist Héctor Mauleón, according to a line of investigation by the authorities. It has not been determined whether he managed to get out of the hidden prison among his “guests” or aboard an ambulance, but four people left the prison. The Public Ministry has issued re -apprehension orders against Hernández for the murder of the ministerial chief José Saúl Martínez, which occurred in 2021, as well as the crimes of criminal association and drug trafficking.
The Ponchis escape happens in the midst of the resignation of Enriquez, who presented his resignation for weeks before the fact. However, the departure from the ex -authority is due, according to local media, to the tense relationship with prosecutor Gustavo Salas and the Secretary of Government, Adolfo Salazar Razo, who did not facilitate the security work of Enriquez security. “In parallel, the Internal Affairs Unit of this Secretariat has opened an investigation to determine the responsibilities of the personnel involved, of finding irregularities, those involved will be presented before the Board of Honor and Justice and will proceed with the corresponding administrative and criminal sanctions,” said Enriquez in his last statement as the head of State Security.
In this first stage of the investigation, four custodians have been arrested, who allegedly collaborated with their escape, and are accused of crimes of evasion of aggravated prisoners, aggravated criminal association, abuse of authority and breach of a legal duty, who are already available to the judge. The Rewards Committee, under the Public Ministry, has doubled the reward for the Ponchis prior to its arrest. Now they offer a million pesos for those who provide useful, effective and truthful data that lead to the recapture of this individual.
Jorge Morales, journalist in Sonora de Radio formulaannounced that the whereabouts of the Coordinator of the Penitentiary System, Gerardo Chavero Bernal, who had just under a year in office, and that according to sources from the Security Secretariat, has not been located and has not been presented to work is not known. There are still no indications that he has been involved in Ponchis’s escape.
Who is Ponchis?
Saúl Francisco Hernández, aka The Ponchis either The ghost, is identified as one of the high controls of the criminal group Los Salazar – affected the faction of the Chapitos of the Sinaloa cartel – that operates in the municipalities of Sáric, Santa Anta, Altar and Magadalena, in Sonora. According to Morales, it was not a priority objective for the United States, but it did have an arrest warrant for an aggression against Immigration and Customs Control Service Agents (ICE) in the Sásabe region a few months ago.
The Ponchis operated a network of immigrants or exoticas they call in that region, people who come from countries like China or Saudi Arabia, as well as with methamphetamine traffic, mainly.
He was captured on March 25 in Hermosillo during an operation that involved different security agencies. The DEA has cataloged it as one of the main operators of the Sinaloa cartel north of the border between Arizona and Sonora, where violence has rebounded for several years. “He is a bloody character and responsible for many deaths in Mexico. He is a lieutenant of the Chapitos,” said Mike Vigil, a former Dea International Operations Chief, A Telemundo.
