Once he completes his five-year prison sentence and five years of supervised release in the United States, Dámaso López Serrano, alias “El Mini Lic,” will be deported to Mexico.
The criminal is accused of masterminding the 2017 murder of Sinaloa journalist Javier Valdez Cárdenas.
According to the sentence, dated February 4 and signed by Judge Anthony L. Trenga, López Serrano was sentenced to five years in prison for conspiracy to distribute 40 grams or more of fentanyl and five years for violations of his supervised release. He will serve these sentences concurrently, in addition to five years of supervised release. At the end of this period, in 2036, he will be turned over to an official from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) of the Department of Homeland Security for deportation to Mexico.
“Upon completion of his sentence, the defendant shall be turned over to a duly authorized immigration officer of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Office of the Department of Homeland Security for deportation, in accordance with the procedures established in the Immigration and Naturalization Act, Title 8 of the United States Code, Section 1101 et seq.,” the ruling states.
It adds that, if deportation is ordered, Dámaso López Serrano must remain outside the United States and may not return without the express written consent of the Attorney General of the United States and the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.
The ruling does not specify whether “El Mini Lic” will be handed over to the Mexican government, which, since 2020, through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE), has requested his extradition to be tried as the mastermind behind the murder of journalist Javier Valdez, which occurred on May 15, 2017.
Investigations carried out by the Special Prosecutor’s Office for Crimes Against Freedom of Expression (FEADLE), part of the Attorney General’s Office (FGR), determined that Dámaso López Serrano ordered Valdez’s murder because he was angered by articles Valdez had published days before the homicide about him and his father, “El Licenciado,” in which he called him a “prop gunman.”
In 2022, after 62 months in prison, Dámaso López was released after the Southern District Court of California determined that he had cooperated sufficiently and served his sentence in a maximum-security prison in the United States.
Mini Lic told Judge Dana M. Sabraw, “I want to apologize to all the people I hurt and who were harmed by my actions; I was wrong to take the path I chose.”
However, in 2024, U.S. authorities discovered he had deceived them, as he was still trafficking drugs and was recaptured. More than a year later, he was brought before a judge in the United States and sentenced to five years in prison.
Source: infobae
