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Juarez Drug Cartel Member Pleads Guilty and Sentenced to Life in Prison
An alleged leader of the Juarez Drug Cartel in Juarez and Chihuahua, Mexico, pleaded guilty last Thursday in El Paso, Texas, and was sentenced to life in prison for his participation in drug-trafficking and numerous acts of violence in connection with the Barrio Azteca gang.
Jose Antonio Acosta-Hernandez, 34, aka “Diego,” “Dienton,” “Diez” and “Bablazo,” of Chihuahua, was extradited to the United States from Mexico on March 16, 2012. On April 5th, he pleaded guilty to four counts of racketeering, narcotics trafficking and money laundering. Acosta-Hernandez also pleaded guilty to seven counts of murder and weapons charges, which specifically related to the March 13, 2010, triple homicide in Juarez of U.S. Consulate employee Leslie Enriquez, her husband Arthur Redelfs and Jorge Salcido Ceniceros, the husband of another U.S. Consulate employee. Immediately after the guilty plea hearing, Acosta-Hernandez was sentenced to seven concurrent life terms, three additional consecutive life terms and 20 years in federal prison by U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone of the Western District of Texas, El Paso Division.
The conviction comes after the issuance of a third superseding indictment, returned on March 2, 2011, alleging that Acosta-Hernandez was an associate of the Barrio Azteca (BA), a violent street and prison gang with ties to the Juarez Drug Cartel. The drug routes through Juarez, known as the Juarez Plaza, are used frequently due to the close proximity to the United States.
Many are unaware that El Paso and Juarez are practically on top of one another, and the area is patrolled constantly by U.S. border agents. With the rise of the Juarez Drug Cartel, the border has become an integral focal point for the U.S. government in their efforts to prevent the importation of drugs into the United States.
It is unclear the motivation behind Acosta-Hernandez’s guilty plea. Many of the counts against him were brought simply because he was determined to be a leader in the cartel and therefore liable for the actions of other cartel members. Because Acosta-Hernandez was extradited to the U.S., he will avoid the dangerous prison conditions in Mexico and may actually live out his life sentence in prison.
A total of 35 individuals were charged in the third superseding indictment and are alleged to have committed various criminal acts, including racketeering, narcotics distribution and importation, retaliation against persons providing information to U.S. law enforcement, extortion, money laundering, obstruction of justice and murder, including the 2010 Juarez consulate murders.
The author of this blog is Erich Ferrari, an attorney specializing in Federal Criminal Defense matters. If you have any questions please contact him at 202-280-6370 or ferrari@ferrari-legal.com.
DEA Launders Millions to Track Drug Traffickers
It is not a well kept secret that the U.S. government, mainly the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), engages in undercover operations in order to take down alleged drug traffickers in foreign countries. But what may be less well known is the fact that the DEA launders millions of dollars into the drug trafficking operations of Mexico.
With the recent increase of drug related violence in Mexico over the past several years, the U.S. government has taken a more active role in the surveillance and investigative efforts into the Mexican drug cartels. The question remains, how far is too far? Should it be considered a legitimate effort by government resources when it engages in money laundering between the United States and Mexico?
The DEA doesn’t call it money laundering, of course. Rather, from their perspective, it is a “mission driven” initiative where the ends justify the means. That argument may be persuasive, but the facts to substantiate this claim seem to lack sufficiency in the big scheme of things in the drug world. The Mexican cartels’ profits can be anywhere from $18 to $39 billion dollars per year. Yet last year the U.S. government seized only an estimated $1 billion in cash and drug assets. This may seem like a lot, but when you factor into the equation the amount of violence associated with these cartels in addition to the fact that money is at the center of all cartel operations, the DEA’s facilitation becomes questionable.
The issue of how the money is being monitored is also an elusive practice. The DEA does not disclose how it monitors and tracks the laundered money, arguing that it would jeopardize the investigations. Yet the money travels back and forth, in and out of the U.S. financial system. With such a volatile economy as it is, one must only hope that the U.S. government knows what its doing. But as previous flounders have indicated, such as when the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives lost track of hundreds of weapons into the cartels, the government is not perfect. Only time will tell whether this undercover initiative will reap more benefits than its losses.
The author of this blog is Erich Ferrari, an attorney specializing in Federal Criminal Defense matters. If you have any questions please contact him at 202-280-6370 or ferrari@ferrari-legal.com.
