Convictions From Cartel’s Attack on U.S. Agents in Mexico Tossed

A drug cartel member’s convictions for being an accessory after the fact for helping to cover up the network’s hit on two U.S. special agents in Mexico were vacated when the D.C. Circuit said the prosecutors applied the wrong statute.

The statute under which Francisco Flores pleaded guilty, 18 U.S.C. §1114, to being an accessory in the murder and attempted murder of the two agents doesn’t apply extraterritorially, the opinion by Judge Neomi Rao said.

But Flores’ 12-year sentence for also violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act was upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the ...