A total of 18 members of Los Zetas drug smuggling cell that operated in Texas and moved drugs from Laredo to Dallas plead guilty to various charges in U.S. federal court and are awaiting sentencing.
All of the guilty pleas took place in recent days and include the various members of the group that operated from June 2011 to June 2013, information provided to Breitbart Texas by the U.S. Attorney’s Office revealed.
The organization was led by Erasmo Abdon “El Cuate” Trejo-Nava who was described by prosecutors as the leader of the Laredo based group. Trejo Nava was one of the primary marijuana transporters for Los Zetas in Nuevo Laredo.
Using commercial trucks and tractor trailers, the group would move multi-ton quantities of marijuana from Laredo to Dallas and move bulk cash from Dallas to Laredo and then into Mexico. The group also used various business fronts to launder drug proceeds by buying real state in Laredo, the information revealed.
The group used various stash houses and business fronts in Laredo to receive and prepare the drugs. The moving of the drugs within Laredo was carried out using personal vehicles. Once the drugs were re-packaged at stash house, the bundles were marked for identification purposes once they arrived in Dallas.
Other Zeta members have been identified as 44-year-old Jaime Enrique “El Broda” Montalvo Ruiz, 47-year-old Leocadio “Leo” Ruiz, 42-year-old Jose Angel “El Topo” Trejo, 41-year-old Ovidio Rodriguez, 41-year-old Victor Hugo “El Cheyo” Trejo, 41-year-old Francisco “El Pelucas” Colin, 36-year-old Salvador “El Chava” Saldana Medrano They all pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute more than 1,000 kilograms of marijuana and to the charge of money laundering.
Juan Manuel “Chacalilla” Vargas Aguilar, 45, Mario Alberto “El Flaco” Rodriguez, 29, Ricardo “Ricky” Ramirez ,33, Arturo “Turin” Lozano, 47, and Josua Sanchez, 32, all pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute more than 1,000 kilograms of marijuana.
Gerardo “Mexiquillo” Recio, 48, pleaded guilty to two separate conspiracy charges in connection with more than 100 kilograms. Other smaller players pleaded guilty to money laundering conspiracy charges.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award winning journalist with Breitbart Texas you can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook.