The federal prosecutors of San Diego not sealed on Tuesday a first-rate indictment, alleging accusations of narco-terrorism against alleged drug traffickers linked to the Sinaloa cartel.
The criminal indictment against members of the Beltrán Leyva organization, which prosecutors have described as a violent faction of the Sinaloa cartel responsible for one of the largest fentanyl production networks in the world, is the first use of the accusations of narco-terrorism against a Mexican drug trafficking organization. The Trump administration has paved the way for such accusations earlier this year when she appointed the Sinaloa cartel and five other Mexican criminal groups as a specially designated foreign and terrorist terrorist organizations.
“To the leaders of the Sinaloa cartel, you are no longer the hunters, you are hunted,” said American lawyer in the San Diego region, Adam Gordon, at a press conference on Tuesday morning announcing the indictment. “You will be betrayed by your friends, you will be tracked down by your enemies, and you will finally find yourself in you and your destiny here, in a courtroom in the southern district of California.”
It is believed that all the accused appointed to the indictment remain in freedom. In addition to the number of narco-terrorism and provide material support for terrorism, the indictment contains accusations more generally used against leaders of drug trafficking organizations, such as accusations of conspiracy in drugs and money laundering and engaging in a continuous criminal enterprise.
“The Sinaloa cartel is a complex and dangerous terrorist organization and dismantling them requires a new powerful legal response,” said US prosecutor Pamela leaps in a statement. “Their days of brutalization of the American people without consequences are over – we will seek for life in prison for these terrorists.”
The main defendant in the indictment is Pedro Inzunza Noriega, 62, which is also addressed to the nicknames “Sagitario” and “El de la Silla”, a reference to the wheelchair which he has used since he was partially paralyzed in a shooting by a rival cartel, said Gordon. His son, Pedro Inzunza Coronel, 33, was also appointed in the indictment.
“They are … (the) leaders of one of the most important and most sophisticated fentanyl production networks in the world,” said Gordon, adding that since the early 2000s, Inzunza Noriega has also been one of the best cocaine traffickers in the United States
In a motion aimed at which the indictment, the deputy prosecutor of the United States Joshua Mellor wrote that in recent years, the father and the son “have treated tens of thousands of kilograms of fentanyl in the United States”.
Mellor wrote that in December, the Mexican police forces have descended into several fentanyl production laboratories through Sinaloa who were controlled by the father and the son and had the biggest fentanyl crisis in the world, which totaled more than 3,300 pounds of ultra-potential drugs.
The American Department of Justice and the Ministry of the Treasury had identified Inzunza Noriega in 2023 as one of the three best leaders of the Beltrán Leyva organization alongside Oscar Manuel Gastelum Iribe, alias “El Musico”, and Fausto Isidro Meza Flores, which is also known as “Chapo Isidro” and is the subject of a million dollars of $ 5 million FBI. Gastelum Iribe and Meza Flores have been charged in several federal districts in the United States, including San Diego.
The Beltrán Leyva organization was once one of the most powerful drug cartels in Mexico and was thus appointed for five brothers who led the group. Mellor said on Tuesday’s press conference that the group had always had close ties with the Sinaloa cartel, despite certain periods of violent dispute, including a particularly bloody period that started around 2008.
“But they have always been part of the Sinaloa cartel, and in fact around 2019 or 2020, they somehow reconstituted and divided territories and areas and have issued basic rules for the various factions,” said Mellor.
In the request by providing the indictment, Mellor allegedly alleged that the Beltrán Leyva faction now controls the drug trade in several states and regions through Mexico, including Tijuana, “and operates with violent impunity … while earning millions of dollars from their criminal activities”.
Gordon said the leading acts against the leadership of the Beltrán Leyva organization add to an expanding pursuit against the Sinaloa cartel by the American prosecutor’s office in San Diego. He said local prosecutors had previously charged the leaders of the Sinaloa Ivan “Chapito” Cartel Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar, one of the sons of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, the legendary Papin de Sinaloa who is now imprisoned in the United States; Ismael “Mayito Flaco” Zambada Sicairos, the son of the former co-leader of the cartel of Sinaloa Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada García, who is in police custody; And Jose “El Chino” Gil Caro Quintero, the cousin of the former drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero, the brain presumed behind the murder in 1985 of the agent of the administration of the enrique drug application “Kiki” Camarena.
Gordon refused to answer questions at the Tuesday press conference on a recent video that showed 17 members of the family of Ovidio Guzmán López, another son of El Chapo, entering the United States of Tijuana. But the Associated Press reported Tuesday that Mexican Security Secretary Omar García Harfuch had confirmed the report, which was published for the first time by independent journalist Luis Chaparro.
The video has shown that family members crossing the Tijuana border with their suitcases to wait for American agents, according to the Associated Press.
Rumors had circulated last week according to which Guzmán López would plead guilty to avoid his trial for several accusations of drug trafficking in the United States after being extradited in 2023. The press service reported that García Harfuch had confirmed the passage of family members in a radio interview and said that it was clear to the Mexican authorities that they did after the negotiations between Guzmán López and the US government.
California Daily Newspapers
