During the past more than ten days Leonel Villalobos has been active in the failed attempts by the Mexicans to get approval by the Pavas court of their new domicile, following an order by the judge Katia Jiménez, giving them the benefit of house arrest.

During the past week or more, protests by citizens and objections by the Fiscalia and the Ministerio de Seguridad Pública (MSP) have stalled the release to house arrest, as residents blockade their areas to prevent the men from living among them and the MSP to approve each of the two domiciles presented by the defence.

On Wednesday the Pavas criminal court judge Joaquín Hernández removed Leonel Villalobos from the defence team, when a long time officer of the Fuerza Pública (police) - the same officials who apprehended the two Mexicans on their flight from Costa Rica, near the Nicaragua border - told the court that he has been under pressure by Villalobos to change his story.

The defence has maintained that the two men, the subject of a manhunt and caught on October 11, 2010, were not fleeing Costa Rica the day after the plane crash in Pavas, but rather on their way to visit family in Mexico.

That version was rejected by the Fiscalia and the reason why the men were given preventive detention, where they still remain in La Reforma's maximum security unit.

Given the testimony of the police official on Wednesday morning, judge Hernández, decided to keep the Mexicans at the La Reforma and to return on Friday for a new hearing, while they sort out who will take the place of Villalobos.

Outside the courthouse, Villalobos denied contacting or pressuring the police official and said that he had three domiciles for consideration by the court, after the same court rejected the previous two.

Villalobos is adamant that the court - judge Hernández - is abusing his power in not enforcing the earlier court order by judge Jiménez.

The job of defending both Mexicans may fall on Gilberto Villalobos, who has been legal representative from the beginning for one of them and was not in court on Wendesday. It is expected the Gilberto Villalobos will be representing both Martínez adn Mendoza at the Friday morning hearing.

The Fuerza Pública official told the court on Wednesday that Leonel Villalobos visited the Peñas Blancas detachment where is assigned and being asked to change his report.

The officials said that he had a conversation with Villalobos "in the street", in a normal tone, where he was asked to change part of his story, in particular the part on how the apprehension went down.

"This man I do not know, I have never seen him before in my life, but, he told the judge, in front of me, that I was the one to pressure him", Villalobos asserted to the press outside the courthouse.

The court ruled that the actions of Leonel Villalbos is an obstruction of justice and removed him as the defence lawyer for the accused.

Back to Leonel Villalobos.

The defence lawyer has a history of his own with drug trafficking and the Pavas criminal court judge Katia Jiménez.

Villalobos was detained and given preventive detention after being accused in 2008 for hiding money of drug traffickers. Katia Jiménez was the judge releasing Villalobos from preventive detention while the investigation into his involvement in the money laundering case continued.

The case against Villalobos is still pending.