U.S. prosecutors want to make an example of former Mexican cartel boss who, aside from life in prison, they plan to fine to the tune of $10 billion.
Alfredo Beltran Leyva, a former leader of the Beltran Leyva Organization (BLO), pleaded guilty to international drug trafficking in a Washington, D.C., federal court in February, according to CNN. Beltran Leyva has been in the U.S. since November 2014 after having been indicted in August 2012 for bringing in huge amounts of meth and coke into the U.S.
Beltran Leyva used to work closely with Sinaloa Cartel boss Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman. Ties between the two cartel kingpins severed in 2008 when Beltran Leyva was picked up by the Mexican Federales. The incarcerated cartel chief’s brothers blamed El Chapo for their brother’s arrest. BLO then became an independent outfit, splitting from the Sinaloa Cartel.
The BLO is notable for being the one major Mexican cartel that had an American citizen as one of its leaders. Edgar Valdez-Villareal of Texas was a senior BLO operative who was known as “La Barbie” for his blonde hair. La Barbie was picked up in 2010 for his cartel crimes and extradited from Mexico to the U.S. in October 2015. The American cartel operative pleaded guilty to drug trafficking in an Atlanta federal court in January.
When El Chapo is eventually extradited to the U.S., it is expected that he has worked out a deal with the U.S. Justice Department to testify against his former business partner in exchange for not spending the remainder of his life behind bars. Prosecutors believe that the $10 billion fine they are seeking from Beltran Leyva is “a conservative estimate” of the kind of cash he made in his days as a cartel boss.
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