Posted on 01/07/2008 8:37:09 PM PST by NormsRevenge
A top lieutenant in the Arellano Felix drug cartel was sentenced to 30 years in prison Monday for his role in the notorious cartel's reign of murder, torture and drug smuggling along the border.
Manuel Arturo Villarreal Heredia had pleaded guilty in September to charges of racketeering and conspiracy to invest drug profits. He also agreed to forfeit $5 million.
Villarreal pleaded guilty along with Javier Arellano Felix, who pleaded guilty to operating a criminal enterprise and was sentenced to life in prison. At one point both men faced the possibility of the death penalty, but former Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez decided against that option in September.
U.S. District Court Judge Larry Burns said at a brief sentencing hearing that Villarreal should have faced more time for his crimes. But the judge could not go above the sentence agreed to in the plea bargain.
“I think you got a tremendous break here,” Burns said.
The sentence ended one of the most successful chapters in the ongoing pursuit of drug cartels by federal authorities. The arrest of Javier Arellano Felix and Villarreal in August 2006 on a boat off the coast of Baja California was a coup for law enforcement authorities and was a significant blow to the weakened cartel.
‘but former Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez decided against that option in September.”
Why am I not surprised.
he was on DEA’s most wanted list forever. Glad they finally caught him and he is in our jail system.
The Arellano Felix drug cartel trial took place at the Federal Court in San Diego.
Am less than 2 miles from the bldg.
The cartels make the mafia look like boy scouts.
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