A Sinaloa Cartel trafficker was sentenced to 12 years in prison on Tuesday for trafficking narcotics through Central America, Mexico and the United States.
Victor Emilio Cazares Gastellum, 53, also known as “El Licenciado,” admitted that he had been the leader of a drug distribution organization in Mexico which bought and imported narcotics from Mexico to the U.S. The Cazares Organization shipped drugs from Columbia and Venezuela to Mexico and eventually distributed them throughout the U.S.
Cazares is believed to have worked for Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, a drug lord and former leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Guzman escaped from maximum-security prisons in Mexico on two occasions. The recent escape in 2015 led to a man-hunt by Mexican and U.S. authorities.
Guzman was recaptured in January and is currently behind bars in the northern border state of Chihuahua.
Cazares was indicted in 2007 and arrested at a highway checkpoint in Guadalajara, Mexico in 2012.
According to his plea agreement, Cazares admitted to distributing more than 450 kilograms of cocaine within the Southern District of California through his organization.
He was sentenced on Monday to 180 months in prison by U.S. District Judge William Q. Hayes and ordered to forfeit $10 million
