Murderer of Mexican journalist Javier Valdez Cárdenas gets 15 years in prison

One of the murderers of Mexican journalist, Javier Valdez Cárdenas, was sentenced to almost 15 years in jail yesterday.

A federal judge handed a sentence of 14 years and eight months to Heriberto Picos Barraza, also known as "El Koala".

Mexico News Daily reports: "The two men accused of shooting the journalist, Juan Francisco 'El Quillo' Picos Barrueta and Luis Ildefonso 'El Diablo' Sánchez Romero, fled the scene in the car driven by 'El Koala'.”

Valdez, the co-founder of the daily newspaper Riodoce, was murdered in May 2017 in Cualiacan. He was "one of the most prominent chroniclers of Mexico’s deadly drug war".

According to the prosecution, "the assassination was ordered by Damaso Lopez Serrano, the son of a drug trafficker, who was furious at having been criticized in an article by Riodoce". Lopez Serrano has denied the charges.

The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomed El Koala's conviction. Jan-Albert Hootsen, Mexico's CPJ representative, said it's a "welcome step forward in the murder of one of Mexico’s most valiant and independent critical voices — a case that has languished with no justice for far too long".