2 men convicted in El Paso in drug trafficking case tied to Mexican cartels
Two men were convicted of drug trafficking tied to Mexican drug cartels, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Texas said in a news release Thursday.
On Tuesday, a federal jury in El Paso convicted the two of multiple counts of drug trafficking. One of the men also was convicted of domestic and international money laundering.
Jorge Sanchez-Morales, aka “Capulina,” 47, was convicted of two counts of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute, two counts of conspiracy to import a controlled substance, one count of conspiracy to commit international money laundering, and one count of conspiracy to commit domestic money laundering.
Luis Reyes-Perez, aka “Cubano,” 51, was convicted of one count of conspiracy to possess a controlled substance with intent to distribute and one count of conspiracy to import a controlled substance.
According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Sanchez-Morales from 2002 to 2019 ran a large-scale drug trafficking organization crossing from Mexico to El Paso and then on to Atlanta. Authorities said that in the early 2000s, Sanchez-Morales worked out of Atlanta, trafficking cocaine and other drugs with Sinaloa cartel operatives.
In 2014, Sanchez-Morales returned to Mexico to run his organization, which then primarily was trafficking methamphetamine, often in liquid form, the news release said. The liquid methamphetamine would be transported from Juárez into El Paso and then was taken to Atlanta in semitractors.
The liquid methamphetamine would be poured into one of the semitractor’s fuel tanks that had been disconnected from the truck’s fuel system and then would be converted into crystalline form once it arrived in Atlanta, authorities said. Sanchez-Morales at the time was affiliated with the Jalisco New Generation cartel, or CJNG, and oversaw the operation.
Reyes-Perez was one of the truck drivers who transported the liquid methamphetamine from El Paso to Atlanta and was responsible for delivering several hundred gallons of the drug, authorities said.
U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas Ashley C. Hoff, Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent in Charge Greg Millard and Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent in Charge Frank Burrola announced the convictions.
The DEA, HSI, the U.S. Border Patrol, the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office, the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Socorro Police Department investigated the case.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Steven Spitzer and Nathan Brown prosecuted it.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: 2 men convicted in drug trafficking case tied to Mexican cartels
