lhttps://www.dallasnews.com/news/crime/2024/04/29/cartel-members-sentenced-after-bringing-10m-of-meth-from-mexico-to-dallas-in-diesel-tank/

Cartel members sentenced after bringing $10M of meth from Mexico to Dallas in diesel tank

Multiple drug traffickers tied to a Mexican cartel have recently been sentenced to federal prison — including a defendant who told law enforcement he helped coordinate a shipment of roughly 200 kilograms of liquid methamphetamine from Mexico to Dallas.

The meth, which has a street value of up to $9.9 million, was concealed inside the diesel tank of a semi-truck, according to court documents.A total of twelve members of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel have been sentenced to between 4-and-a-half and 40 years in federal prison, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas.

Francisco Javier Rodriguez Arreola, 45, was a top source of supply and was sentenced last week to 40 years for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine.He is a Mexican citizen who was arrested in 2021 in Del Rio as he was illegally entering the U.S. after previously being deported, the attorney’s office news release said.During the investigation, wiretaps caught Rodriguez Arreola talking with codefendants in code about the movement and sale of drugs.

At his sentencing hearing last Tuesday, prosecutors showed evidence that Rodriguez Arreola coordinated multiple deliveries of methamphetamine from Mexico to the U.S. on behalf of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, one of Mexico’s most violent and powerful drug cartels, according to the release. He had access to higher ups in the cartel who reported directly to its leader, Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, also known as El Mencho.

Rodriguez Arreola’s role consisted of finding people who could transport and distribute the drug, planning routes, confirming delivery, coordinating loss prevention and finding locations to receive and store narcotics shipments.

Over the course of the investigation, law enforcement seized an estimated 650 kilograms of methamphetamine drugs, 17 guns, $220,922 in U.S. money and $12,200 in real and personal property, the release said.