The release of Edgar Jimenez Lugo, a U.S. citizen known as “El Ponchis” or “The Cloak,” comes less than three years after a Mexican court found him guilty of torturing and beheading at least four people and kidnapping three others as an operative for the South Pacific Cartel. The teenager’s age — 14 at the time — and his on-camera description of the slayings, brought international attention to the case. Analysts said the dramatic example showed how Mexican drug gangs were increasingly recruiting youths.
On Tuesday, Mexican authorities said he had served his three-year sentence and had been sent back to the United States.
The teen, now 17, boarded a commercial flight from Mexico City to San Antonio, Texas, on Tuesday morning, according to Jorge Messeguer, government secretary in Mexico’s Morelos state.
Asked about the teen’s case, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokeswoman said the agency facilitated the return of a U.S. citizen on Tuesday. She declined to provide details, citing privacy restrictions.
An aunt in San Antonio signed off on the teen’s repatriation there, a state official in Morelos told CNNMexico.
A judge released him five days early, Messeguer said, to steer clear of too much publicity in the high-profile case.
“The judge determined she wanted to guarantee his privacy and safety,” he said.
After the teen’s arrest in 2010, some children’s rights advocates were critical of Mexican authorities who paraded him before television cameras and allowed him to answer reporters’ questions.
The teen answered the battery of questions, point-blank, as camera flashbulbs flickered. Troops standing beside him wore masks to hide their faces. But the teen’s face was clearly visible.
“I slit their throats,” he said, describing what he...
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Wonderful. How many more just like him are coming into the country?
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