A federal judge denied on December 15 the appeal filed by Hernán Bermúdez Requena, former Secretary of Public Security of Tabasco, to avoid being formally charged with criminal association, kidnapping, and extortion.
The judge’s decision means that the former leader of the La Barredora cartel will remain incarcerated while the criminal proceedings against him continue.
Judge Sandra Adriana Carbajal Díaz, of the First District Court of the State of Tabasco, also refused to protect him from the mandatory pretrial detention imposed on him as part of the criminal proceedings. Carbajal Díaz made this decision after considering that the Tabasco judge who formally charged him and issued the precautionary measure duly justified and explained his ruling, and therefore the injunction sought by Bermúdez Requena is not warranted.
Consequently, Hernán Bermúdez will remain in prison at the Federal Social Reintegration Center Number 1, in Altiplano, State of Mexico. “El Abuelo,” as he is also known, will have to await a hearing scheduled for next week in the local courts of Tabasco.
The Tabasco Attorney General, Óscar Tonatiuh Vázquez Landeros, stated on December 1st that his office is continuing to compile the local case file. The official explained that the hearing will address the legal status of the properties seized from the former official.
Bermúdez Requena has been held at the Altiplano maximum-security prison since his arrest in Paraguay on September 13, 2025. He is being prosecuted for criminal association, extortion, and aggravated kidnapping, charges that could result in a sentence of more than one hundred years in prison.
The investigation into “La Barredora,” a criminal group linked to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) and operating in Tabasco, revealed alleged acts of infiltration within state security structures.
