SINALOA CARTEL FIGURE GETS PRISON

The brother of a highprofile Sinaloa cartel figure was sentenced in San Diego federal court Friday to more than five years in prison.

Alvaro Lopez Nuñez pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute heroin, methamphetamine and cocaine in 2018 and has been waiting the past four years in custody to be sentenced.

He was arrested at the border in Nogales, Ariz., in 2017 and charged alongside several others, including his nephew, Damaso Lopez Serrano, known as “Mini Lic,” who is said to be the godson of Sinaloa drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.

Lopez Serrano made headlines when he turned himself in to U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at the border in Calexico. According to reports, the young drug trafficker was seeking protection from cartel rivals — Guzmán’s own sons. He has also pleaded guilty and is tentatively set to be sentenced in September.

Lopez Nuñez’s brother is Damaso Lopez Nuñez, known as “El Licenciado,” or the Graduate, a former prison official who helped orchestrate an escape for Guzmán and came to be one of the cartel’s top leaders. He was arrested in Mexico City and was a key witness against his former boss during Guzmán’s blockbuster 2019 trial in Brooklyn.

Sentencing documents for Lopez Nuñez were sealed, which is common in cartel cases. U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw sentenced him to five years and three months in prison — much of which Lopez Nunez has already served.