Sinaloa, Beltran- Leyva smuggler gets 27 years in prison
A drug smuggler for two notorious Mexican cartels has been sentenced to 27 years in federal prison, according to the U. S. attorney’s office.
Manuel Fernandez- Valencia, also known as Manuel Fernandez- Navarro, used the shared resources of the Sinaloa Cartel and Beltran-Leyva Organization as he helped Pedro and Margarito Flores smuggle cocaine into the United States, the feds say. Fernandez- Valencia, 48, pleaded guilty to a drug distribution conspiracy last year.
The Flores twins have pleaded guilty to importing tons of heroin and cocaine for the Sinaloa cartel’s notorious kingpin, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman Loera. They were each sentenced to 14 years in prison.
Assistant U. S. Attorney Erika Csicsila wrote that Fernandez- Valencia, along with the Flores brothers, purchased loads of drugs that “often contained hundreds of kilograms of cocaine at a time.” Fernandez-- Valencia “was operating at the highest levels of the drug world,” Csicsila wrote.
The cartels moved their drugs via private airplanes, submarines, container ships, fishing vessels, buses, tractor- trailers and cars, the feds say. The drugs were held in safe houses in southern California before being shipped to Chicago and elsewhere.
In three raids in November 2008, federal agents seized more than a ton of cocaine and more than 93 kilograms of methamphetamine from Fernandez- Valencia. He has been in custody since 2010.