A high-ranking Mexican cartel leader who faked his own death to “live a life of luxury” in California has been arrested and charged with drug trafficking, U.S. officials said Thursday.
Cristian Fernando Gutierrez-Ochoa was arrested Tuesday in Riverside, California, the Justice Department said in a statement.
Gutierrez-Ochoa is the son-in-law of Nemesio Oseguera-Cervantes58 years old, also known as ‘El Mencho’, the leader of the Jalisco New Generation cartel, which officials described as ‘one of the most violent and prolific drug trafficking organizations in the world’.
Nicole Argentieri, a senior Justice Department official, said Gutierrez-Ochoa “allegedly directed the importation of tons of methamphetamine and cocaine into the United States and engaged in violence to support the cartel’s criminal activities. “
Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said Gutierrez-Ochoa “allegedly faked his own death and adopted a false identity to avoid justice and live a life of luxury in California.”
According to court documents, Gutierrez-Ochoa began working for the Jalisco cartel in 2014 and coordinated the shipment of 40,000 kilos of methamphetamine and 2,000 kilos of cocaine from Mexico to the United States.
In 2021, he allegedly kidnapped two members of the Mexican Navy in an attempt to secure the release of Oseguera-Cervantes’ wife, who had been arrested by Mexican authorities.
Oseguera-Cervantes, the founder of the Jalisco cartel, has also been indicted in the United States and the State Department has offered a $10 million reward for his arrest.
In December 2022 the Mexican army captured Antonio Oseguerathe brother of “El Mencho.” He is said to have overseen violent actions and logistics, purchased weapons and laundered money for the Jalisco cartel. The U.S. Treasury Department named Antonio Oseguera’s alias “El Tony Montana,” an apparent reference to the fictional protagonist of the 1983 gangster film “Scarface.”
The Jalisco Cartel is better known for producing millions of doses of deadly fentanyl and smuggling it into the United States disguised as Xanax, Percocet or oxycodone. Such pills cause approx 70,000 overdose deaths per year in the United States.
“Defeating the two cartels responsible for the deadly drug crisis in the United States is the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) top operational priority, and with the arrest of Cristian Fernando Gutierrez-Ochoa, we are that much closer,” DEA says administrator Anne Milgram. said in a statement Thursday.
Earlier this year, the US sanctions imposed about a group of Mexican accountants and firms allegedly linked to a timeshare fraud ring run by the Jalisco Cartel in a multi-million dollar scheme targeting Americans.
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