After nearly 20 years in prison, a federal judge acquitted the alleged leader of the kidnapping gang"Los Zodiaco", Israel Vallarta Cisneros, and ordered his immediate release.

Mariana Vieyra Valdez, head of the Third District Court for Criminal Matters based in Toluca, determined that there is no evidence demonstrating the full responsibility of Vallarta Cisneros in the crimes of organized crime, illegal deprivation of liberty, in the form of kidnapping, in addition to carrying and possession of a firearm and possession of cartridges for the exclusive use of the Armed Forces, which the Attorney General's Office (FGR) charged him with.

In this way, it is expected that Israel Vallarta Cisneros will be released from the maximum security prison of Altiplano, in the State of Mexico.

The Attorney General's Office may appeal the judge's ruling, federal sources reported.

Since 2005, Israel Vallarta Cisneros, former partner of the French Florence Cassez, released by the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) in 2013, was detained by the defunct Federal Investigation Agency (AFI), headed by the former Secretary of Public Security, Genaro García Luna, currently imprisoned in the United States.