MCALLEN, TEXAS (AP) -- A federal judge sentenced a member of a south Texas kidnapping ring allegedly controlled by the Mexican Gulf cartel to life in prison Tuesday.
A jury convicted Luis Avila Hernandez in January on kidnapping charges related to the August 2008 kidnapping of Daniel Ramirez Jr. from his job at a convenience store in Weslaco.
Co-defendants in the case testified that Ramirez was held in Reynosa, Mexico, and eventually killed in spite of a $40,000 ransom paid by his family.
U.S. District Judge Randy Crane said Avila, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, will be deported if granted parole from his prison term.
Crane sentenced Avila to concurrent life terms for one count of kidnapping and one count of conspiracy to kidnap.
Trial testimony suggested Ramirez was targeted because the Gulf cartel's enforcement arm, the Zetas, were trying to expand their influence over those involved in the drug trade on the U.S. side of the border.
Prosecutors had said the kidnappers' goal was to make south Texas run like Mexico and they acted on orders from Jaime Gonzalez Duran, a founding member of the Zetas sentenced recently in Mexico to 16 years in prison on weapons and money laundering charges.
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