{"id":51288,"date":"2025-08-01T13:17:47","date_gmt":"2025-08-01T17:17:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/world\/alleged-leader-of-mexican-kidnapping-ring-released-after-nearly-20-years-in-prison\/01\/08\/2025\/"},"modified":"2025-08-01T13:17:47","modified_gmt":"2025-08-01T17:17:47","slug":"alleged-leader-of-mexican-kidnapping-ring-released-after-nearly-20-years-in-prison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/world\/alleged-leader-of-mexican-kidnapping-ring-released-after-nearly-20-years-in-prison\/01\/08\/2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Alleged leader of Mexican kidnapping ring released after nearly 20 years in prison"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"\" data-article-body=\"true\">\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">MEXICO CITY (AP) \u2014 The alleged leader of an infamous Mexican kidnapping ring walked out of a maximum security prison after nearly 20 years Friday, hours after a judge said there wasn\u2019t sufficient evidence to support the charges holding him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Interior Secretary Rosa Icela Rodr\u00edguez on Friday rattled off a list of appeals, injunctions and complaints filed over the years of Israel Vallarta\u2019s imprisonment in a case that never arrived at a verdict.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Vallarta had been charged with organized crime and kidnapping, but a judge tossed those out Thursday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The Attorney General\u2019s Office did not immediately respond as to whether it would appeal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Vallarta was arrested in 2005, along with his girlfriend French citizen <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/international-news-general-news-4425983463394fb08f98232e668fd466\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Florence Cassez;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Florence Cassez<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Cassez was eventually convicted and sentenced to 60 years on charges of aiding a kidnapping ring, in a case that soured relations between Paris and Mexico City.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">She acknowledged living with Vallarta at a ranch where kidnap victims were being held, but professed her innocence, saying she was unaware of their presence. One victim identified her as a kidnapper, but by voice only rather than by sight.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">A day after Cassez was arrested, police had forced her to take part in a staged raid on the ranch purportedly to rescue hostages and arrest suspects. It was covered by the media and broadcast on television.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">In January 2013 the Supreme Court overturned Cassez\u2019s conviction due to procedural and rights violations. She was released and became a cause celebre in France.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/news\/articles\/alleged-leader-mexican-kidnapping-ring-165310566.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MEXICO CITY (AP) &mdash; The alleged leader of an infamous Mexican kidnapping ring walked out of a maximum security prison after nearly<br \/><button class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/world\/alleged-leader-of-mexican-kidnapping-ring-released-after-nearly-20-years-in-prison\/01\/08\/2025\/\">Read More &rsaquo;<\/a><\/button><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":51289,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/cv\/apiv2\/social\/images\/yahoo_default_logo-1200x1200.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51288"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51288"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51288\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}