A regional commander for Los Zetas will spend 30 years in prison for his role in the smuggling of more than 40,000 pounds of marijuana into Texas over a span of seven years. The boss was arrested by Texas State Troopers on gunboats when he tried to escape Mexican soldiers.
This week, U.S. District Judge Melinda Harmon sentenced Jose Manuel “Z-31 or El Borrado” Saldivar Farias to a 30-year-prison term for his role in various drug trafficking conspiracies and illegally entering the country. Saldivar Farias pleaded guilty last month to the conspiracies.
Texas State Troopers arrested Saldivar on March 2015 after he tried to sneak into Texas via boat in Falcon Lake, Breitbart Texas reported. New information released by the U.S. Attorney’s Office revealed that Saldivar was trying to escape from the Mexican military at the time of his capture. Prior to the failed escape attempt, 39-year-old Pedro Perez-Ocampo, from the Mexican State of Guerrero, and 29-year-old Osiel Hernandez-Martinez from Tamaulipas paid Los Zetas a tax to smuggle drugs through their territory.
When the two men were getting ready to load their boat with marijuana, Saldivar arrived demanding that the men take him across Falcon Lake into Texas. Along the way, the Zeta boss told everyone on the boat to call him by a pseudonym if they came across U.S. authorities and to deny any link to Los Zetas. After Texas State Troopers stopped the boat and captured the group, Saldivar claimed to be an illegal immigrant looking for work.
Perez Ocampo and Hernandez Martinez previously pleaded guilty for their role in the smuggling of narcotics into Texas. Federal prosecutors have convicted over a dozen smugglers connected to Saldivar’s operation.
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