Juan garcia abrego sentence

Juan Garcia Abrego, described as the leader of a powerful drug ring based in Mexico, was convicted on October 16 on drug trafficking charges Deborah Tedford and Jo Ann Zuniga, "Cocaine kingpin is guilty," Houston ChronicleOctober 17,p.

Gerald H. Defendant-appellant Juan Garcia Abrego appeals his conviction and sentence for ten counts of possession with intent to distribute cocaine in violation of 21 U. We affirm. For approximately two decades, Juan Garcia Abrego was the hub of a narcotics smuggling syndicate of staggering dimension. Headquartered in Matamoros, Mexico, Garcia Abrego's organization was responsible for smuggling tremendous quantities of cocaine and marijuana into the United States from the mids to the mids.

Juan garcia abrego sentence

Those penalties, along with an order permitting the U. After U. Assistant Atty. Several witnesses, all of them imprisoned in the U. But none implicated senior Mexican or U. The pursuit and prosecution of Garcia Abrego, 52, was said to typify an aggressive, cooperative new attack on the multibillion-dollar, cross-border drug trade by U. Mexican prosecutors, however, recently have suffered serious setbacks in their attempts to win similar prison terms for major traffickers. Palma was arrested last year, along with dozens of federal police who were protecting him, after an airplane crash. The Guadalajara judge sentenced him to six years in jail on illegal weapons charges. He was arrested a year ago near Monterrey, Mexico, by a squad of Mexican anti-drug agents. Within 24 hours, the Mexican government expelled him and flew him to Houston, where he was put on trial on a count drug-trafficking and money-laundering indictment. Before sentencing, Werlein asked the drug lord if he wished to make a statement. He had no choice but to give him life. March 5,

Tony Ortiz testified that he transported juan garcia abrego sentence into the United States at the direction of Luis Medrano. Mike Ramsey, Garcia Abrego's lawyer, called the proceedings a "show trial" during his closing arguments. Garcia Abrego relies on the Supreme Court's recent holding in Rutledge v.

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After 10 years of investigation, a monthlong trial and 11 hours of deliberation, a federal jury here convicted Garcia Abrego, 52, on all 22 counts of drug-trafficking and money laundering--parts of a criminal conspiracy that witnesses said protected itself with millions of dollars in monthly bribes to officials on both sides of the border. After the verdict, prosecutors and defense attorneys indicated that Garcia Abrego--who fought back emotion as he listened through headphones to the Spanish translation of a verdict that could result in a maximum sentence of life in prison--has no plans to cooperate with U. They are investigating widespread corruption that they say continues to aid the drug trade in Mexico. The trial drew wide attention from many in the U. The cartel was said to have paid off U. National Guard troops to escort their tons of cocaine across the border. Garcia Abrego.

Juan garcia abrego sentence

Those penalties, along with an order permitting the U. After U. Assistant Atty.

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At Garcia Abrego's direction, Perez unloaded marijuana flown in on a small plane by Oscar "El Profe" Lopez Olivares, stored it in a warehouse on Garcia Abrego's ranch in Soliceno, Mexico, and smuggled it across the border into the United States in inner tubes. Additionally, Rivas testified that Medrano informed him of the seizure of cocaine at the Arrowrock residence. Garcia Abrego does not challenge the sufficiency of the evidence to establish that the money at issue in each of the money laundering counts constituted the proceeds of narcotics trafficking or that the transfers at issue were made for the purpose of promoting narcotics trafficking activity. Thevis, F. Business Visionaries. Garcia Abrego has cited no authority in support of this contention. One of the FBI agents involved in the seizure at the Almeda-Genoa warehouse testified that he was conducting surveillance at the Wharton airport in Houston and that he observed a blue pickup registered to Guadalupe Velez. If the prosecutor files the motion before the witness is sentenced, the motion is called a "5K1. Most rights must be asserted when the government seeks to take the action they protect against. In doing so, the court expressed the following rationale:. Vega testified that they then delivered the money to Matamoros. The jury instruction in this case expressly apprised the jury of the Pinkerton principle. Based upon Vega's testimony that he acted at the behest of Malherbe and Medrano, the jury could reasonably conclude that the money laundering offense described in count 14 was committed by Garcia Abrego's coconspirators in furtherance of the conspiracy.

He started in the cartel under the tutelage of his uncle Juan Nepomuceno Guerra. Reports date his trafficking career beginning in the mids, exporting marijuana from Mexico into the U. In the early s he began incorporating cocaine into the cartel's trafficking operations.

Additionally, a number of witnesses testified that Garcia Abrego's group employed a number of pilots, hit men, and body guards. It is highly questionable whether Garcia Abrego could have invoked his Fifth Amendment right to counsel at a point in time prior to custodial interrogation, particularly at a point when he was not even in the custody of U. Additionally, as with a challenge to the voluntariness of a confession, when the defendant challenges the validity of his waiver of his Miranda rights, the government bears the burden of proving the validity of the waiver by a preponderance of the evidence. Pace, 10 F. Two days later, Lopez drove the truck to a residence in Brownsville on Monterey Street. Garcia Abrego contends that his convictions for these substantive drug offenses are not sustainable on a theory of coconspirator vicarious liability. Another defense attorney, Tony Canales a former U. The entire time, the clothing and furniture remained dumped in the yard. This principle applies a fortiori here because Cervantes-Pacheco is an en banc decision. From this evidence, the jury could reasonably conclude that the drug offense described in count 7 was committed by Garcia Abrego's coconspirators in furtherance of the conspiracy.