A notorious Mexican drug lord and convicted cop killer who co-founded the Sinaloa cartel could soon be released from prison in Mexico, according to a report.

A Mexican court is poised to grant Hector Luis Palma a legal remedy that would guarantee his release from a maximum-security prison near Mexico City, Tijuana-based Zeta magazine reported.

Palma, nicknamed “El Güero” for his fair complexion and blue eyes, is a former drug trafficker and co-founder of the Sinaloa Cartel alongside Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzman and Ismael Zambada Garcia.

His life was dramatized in the Netflix series “Narcos: Mexico”, where he was portrayed by Gorka Lasaosa in seasons 1-3.

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Palma has gone to prison in both the United States and Mexico.

His first arrest for drug trafficking took place in Arizona in 1978. He was sentenced to eight years in a US prison.

After his release, Palma’s family was brutally murdered by a rival drug dealer. He led a bloody campaign of assassinations in retaliation for their deaths and returned to drug trafficking with the Sinaloa Cartel.

Palma was arrested again by Mexican military officials after surviving a plane crash in 1995.

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He was extradited to the United States and spent nearly two decades in Atwater federal prison before being sent back to Mexico to stand trial for the murders of two police officers.

Palma’s lawyers have tried to overturn his conviction for the police killings, arguing that key witnesses in the government’s case were coerced.

Two years ago, a court sided with Palma and ordered his release, according to Border Report.

Mexican prosecutors have been fighting the court’s decision ever since. They have asked Mexico’s Supreme Court to uphold Palma’s conviction, but the court has refused to hear the case and let the lower court’s decision stand.

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Zeta reports that Palma’s release is likely to happen within days.

US authorities have described the Sinaloa Cartel as “the largest, most violent and most prolific fentanyl trafficking operation in the world.”

Fentanyl is a dangerous synthetic opioid that is more than 50 times more potent than heroin. According to the Department of Justice, fentanyl is now the leading cause of death for Americans between the ages of 18 and 49 and has fueled the opioid epidemic in the United States for roughly the past eight years. Between 2019 and 2021, fatal overdoses increased by approximately 94%, with an estimated 196 Americans dying each day from fentanyl.

The Sinaloa Cartel operated as an affiliation of drug traffickers and money launderers who obtain precursor chemicals, largely from China, for the manufacture of synthetic drugs, manufacture drugs in Mexico, move those drugs to the United States and collect, launder and transfer the drug. products of drug trafficking, the DOJ has alleged.

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