The attorney’s introductory hearing Mario Aquinothe Palace of Justice official accused of favoring the release of Oswaldo José Cheremos Carrasquel (El Pelón Cheremos), was suspended, according to judicial sources.
Cheremos, recaptured on February 15, is being prosecuted for illegal trafficking in weapons of war and is a member of the criminal organization Tren del Llano, as published at the time by General Domingo Hernandez LarezHead of the Strategic Operational Command of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (Ceofanb).
The subject was released on January 9 due to an alleged instruction given by Mario Aquino, who at that time coordinated the Criminal Judicial Circuit of Caracas.
Said instruction was sent via WhatsApp to the 4th Anti-Terrorist Court of Caracas under judge José Maxcimino Márquez García.
When the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice detected the release in favor of a subject prosecuted for trafficking in war weapons, it suggested reversing it, an action that materialized on February 15. Hours before, the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (Sebin) arrested Mario Aquino.
Aquino’s presentation hearing was scheduled for last Wednesday, the day he was transferred to the Palace of Justice in Caracas. At that hearing, Aquino would be charged by the Public Ministry before the 52nd Court of Control of Caracas in charge of Judge Alice Hernández.
But at the last minute, the hearing was suspended because just that day the Sebin captured Loreannys Mariana Mejías Díazthe woman who allegedly received the sum of 240,000 dollars (including cash and vehicles) from Pelón Cheremos to process her freedom together with Aquino, as it materialized on January 9.
Mejía and Aquino are the only ones detained in this case. Mejía worked as a parliamentary assistant until October of last year assigned to deputy Antonio Benavides Torres, a source explained.
While Aquino worked in the past as Eleventh Provisional Prosecutor of the Public Ministry at the national level with Competition in Matters against Corruption, Banks, Insurance and Capital Markets. He then entered the Caracas Criminal Judicial Circuit in October 2002.
