A U.S. federal jury in San Antonio, Texas, convicted a high ranking sicario for the Los Zetas drug cartel. The man was convicted of conspiracy to commit murders and other acts of violence in northern Mexico as part of the cartel’s drug distribution operation.
Marciano “Chano” Millan Vasquez was found guilty on charges that included: killing while engaged in drug trafficking; conspiracy to distribute and import marijuana; distribution of controlled substances outside the U.S. intending that they be imported into the U.S.; employing minors in a drug crime; conspiracy to distribute cocaine; conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine; conspiracy to possess firearms in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime; and, making a false statement to a federal official, according to information obtained from the Department of Justice by Breitbart Texas.
Jurors heard testimony from witnesses that detailed a particularly brutal murder of a young girl in 2013. Vasquez murdered the girl in front of her parents by dismembering her with an axe and setting her on fire. He laughed at the parents and said he killed her so brutally “so you’ll remember me.” Vasquez subsequently murdered the mother of the girl in a similar fashion in front of her husband. The husband was then killed.
He said he did this because he wanted the father to suffer, a witness testified. Other testimony confirmed his murderous behavior in the participation of a massacre of numerous people in Allende, Coahuila, Mexico. The attack was carried out in March 2011 by Vasquez and other Los Zetas cartel members.
“The witnesses and victims in the trial of Marciano Millan Vasquez gave testament to the unspeakable savagery and violence of the Los Zetas cartel and Vasquez’s complete disregard for human life,” United States Attorney Richard L. Durbin, Jr. said in the written statement obtained by Breitbart Texas. “Without mercy or compunction he brutally murdered anyone and everyone as it suited him and his cartel, at times inflicting the cruelest of pain, forcing relatives to watch their loved ones murdered before he turned his blades on them. With this verdict his reign of terror over the drug plaza in Piedras Negras has been judged and has come to a close. This jury has done justice. His just punishment awaits him.”
During the two week trial, establishing testimony was heard confirming Vasquez’s membership in the Los Zetas drug cartel. He served as a sicario until he took over control of the Piedras Negraz “Plaza,” a drug trafficking corridor that ran through Coahuila, Mexico. The brutal drug cartel was headed by Miguel Trevino Morales (aka “Z-40”) and his brother, Oscar Omar Trevino Morales (aka “Z-42”).
As the overseer of this lucrative drug corridor, Vasquez facilitated the distribution of more than 1,000 kilograms of narcotics that included marijuana, cocaine, and methamphetamine from Mexico into the U.S. He was said to be responsible for the murders of at least 29 people in northern Mexico over a four and a half year period that ended in July 2015 when he was taken into U.S. custody.
The Los Zetas sicario now faces spending the rest of his natural life in a U.S. prison. His sentencing hearing is scheduled for October 2016.
Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior political news contributor for Breitbart Texas. He is a founding member of the Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX.