BROWNSVILLE, Texas (ValleyCentral) — A 51-year-old Mexican national who was head of Cartel del Golfo (CDG) has been ordered to prison.
The United States Attorney’s Office Southern District of Texas (USAO-SDTX) reported that Jorge Costilla-Sanchez was sentenced for his role in conspiring to distribute cocaine and marijuana from Mexico into the U.S.
On September 26, 2017, Costilla-Sanchez pleaded guilty, said the USAO-SDTX news release.
On Thursday, Sept. 15, U.S. District Judge Fernando Rodriguez Jr. ordered Costilla-Sanchez to serve the rest of his life in federal prison.
In handing down the sentence, Judge Rodriguez noted Costilla-Sanchez’s extensive involvement in trafficking illegal drugs into the country.
Costilla-Sanchez became head of CDG after the arrest of former CDG leader Osiel Cardenas in 2003.
USAO-SDTX said, prior to joining the cartel, Costilla-Sanchez was a municipal police officer in Matamoros, Mexico.
He was arrested in 2012 in Mexico at the request of the United States and in 2015 pleaded guilty to threatening two federal agents from the FBI while he was being investigated for drug trafficking in 1999.
During the time Costilla-Sanchez was the leader, he was responsible for importing over 11 tons of cocaine and over 150 tons of marijuana to the United States, said the USAO-SDTX.
He will remain in custody pending transfer to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility to be determined in the near future.
