Overview

• A federal ruling by Judge Jesús Alberto Chávez Hernández found the former Federal Police regional security chief guilty of authorizing torture to obtain information or confessions.
• He is barred from holding public office for the length of the sentence, which the court said must be fully served.
• Three former Federal Police agents — Horacio Parra Rubio, Marisela García Toledo and Fernando Valdez Aparicio — received four-year prison terms in the same case.
• Prosecutors said victims including Mario Vallarta Cisneros and Sergio Cortéz Vallarta were assaulted with blows, suffocated with plastic bags and subjected to electric shocks to force admissions of ties to the 'Los Zodiaco' group.
• Cárdenas Palomino has been jailed since July 2021, placing projected completion of the term in October 2026 absent a successful appeal.