A high-ranking Sinaloa Cartel member who was the architect of tunnels linking Mexico to California was sentenced by a San Diego federal court docket on Wednesday.
José Sánchez bought 10 years and one month in jail for drug distribution conspiracy, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported.
Often called “El Señor de los Tuneles” or “The Man of the Tunnels,” Sánchez admitted throughout a court docket listening to in December 2020 to masterminding the development of assorted underground passages that allowed Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán’s transnational group to smuggle medication from Tijuana to San Diego.
“I promise I cannot do something unlawful once more, as a result of the straightforward approach to get cash is often the unhealthy approach to get it,” he mentioned throughout his court docket listening to.
The 58-year-old advised the federal government he deliberate, lined the prices and oversaw development of the cross-border tunnels from 2010 to 2012.
Nevertheless, below the indictment and plea discount settlement he was solely discovered responsible of establishing two passageways.
A San Diego federal court docket sentenced José Sánchez to 10 years and one month in jail throughout a court docket listening to Wednesday. Sánchez admitted to being the mastermind of the development of assorted underground passages that allowed Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán’s transnational group to smuggle medication from Tijuana, Mexico to San Diego
Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán’s Sinaloa Cartel was identified for utilizing underground passageways to smuggle medication from Tijuana, Mexico to San Diego
A secret tunnel connecting warehouses in Tijuana, Mexico and San Diego was found by authorities November 29, 2011. It was constructed by José Sánchez, a rating member of Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán’s Sinaloa Cartel
Sánchez was arrested in Mexico in 2012 and served nearly eight years in jail as his extradition performed out. In January 2020, Sánchez was extradited to the US, the place he has been in custody for a 12 months and a half.
He might be launched from jail within the coming months resulting from good habits and since he spent years in jail in Mexico. He’ll probably be deported to Mexico after his launch.
A Mexican soldier patrols a tunnel found at a warehouse in Tijuana on Thanksgiving 2010. It spanned 612 yards and was geared up with rail tracks that linked it to a second constructing within the San Diego neighborhood of Otay Mesa
A Mexican soldier walks via a trans-border tunnel – connecting two warehouses in Tijuana and San Diego – on November 30, 2011. The passageway was deliberate and financed by José Sánchez, a rating member of the Sinaloa Cartel, who was sentenced by a San Diego federal court docket Wednesday
The primary tunnel was found Thanksgiving 2010. It spanned 612 yards and was geared up with rail tracks that linked a warehouse in Tijuana to a different within the San Diego neighborhood of Otay Mesa.
On the Mexico facet, it included a hydraulically managed metal door and an elevator hidden below the warehouse flooring. Greater than 22 tons of marijuana had been faraway from the San Diego warehouse by authorities.
Based on the indictment, the second tunnel was found November 29, 2011 in the identical space.
The underground passage stretched 600 yards between the United States-Mexico border, and led to the seizure of 32 tons of marijuana, together with 26 tons that had been confiscated on the San Diego facet – one of many largest busts in U.S. historical past.
View of a trans-border tunnel and wagons present in Tijuana, Mexico on November 29, 2011. The underground passage lined 600 yards between the United States-Mexico border and led to the seizure of 32 tons of marijuana, together with 26 tons that had been confiscated on the San Diego facet – one of many largest busts in U.S. historical past.
Authorities perform the inspection of one of many two cross-border tunnels that José Sánchez was accused of constructing for the Sinaloa Cartel to smuggle marijuana from Tijuana, Mexico, to the San Diego neighborhood of Otay Mesa
Greater than 54 tons of marijuana had been recovered from two warehouses in San Diego that had been related to different ones within the Mexican border city of Tijuana
Sánchez moved from Mexico to Los Angeles in his 20s and spent nearly 20 years there, turning into a authorized resident of the US earlier than he returned to his native nation in 2005, in line with the San Diego Union-Tribune.
Sánchez reportedly oversaw the smuggling of medication for the cartel within the Mexican states of Jalisco and Baja California.
