A Barrio Azteca (BA) gang associate was sentenced today to
240 months in prison for his participation in a racketeering conspiracy and
drug trafficking offenses.
Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice
Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Richard L. Durbin Jr. for the
Western District of Texas, Special Agent in Charge Douglas Lindquist of the
FBI’s El Paso, Texas, Office and Special Agent in Charge Will Glaspy of the
U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) El Paso Division made the
announcement.
Luis Humberto Hernandez Celis, aka Pac, 32, of El Paso, was
sentenced before U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone of the Western District
of Texas for racketeering conspiracy; conspiracy to distribute and possess with
intent to distribute controlled substances; and conspiracy to import heroin,
cocaine and marijuana.
According to court documents and information presented in
court throughout this case, the BA gang began operating in the late 1980s as a
violent prison gang and has expanded into a transnational criminal organization
based in West Texas; Juarez, Mexico; and throughout state and federal prisons
in the United States and Mexico. The
gang relies on a militaristic command structure that includes “captains,”
“lieutenants,” “sergeants” and “soldiers” to maintain power and enriches
members and associates through drug trafficking, money laundering, extortion,
intimidation, violence, threats of violence and murder.
According to court documents, since Jan. 1, 2003, members
and associates of the BA have engaged in a host of such criminal activity,
including the March 13, 2010, murders in Juarez of U.S. consulate employee
Leslie Ann Enriquez Catton, her husband Arthur Redelfs and Jorge Alberto
Salcido Ceniceros, the husband of a U.S. consulate employee.
According to admissions made in connection with Hernandez
Celis’s plea agreement, BA generates profits by importing heroin, cocaine and
marijuana into the United States from Mexico.
Hernandez Celis admitted that gang members and associates also allegedly
charge a “street tax” or “cuota” on businesses and criminals operating on their
turf. These profits are used to support
gang members in prison by funneling money into prison commissary accounts of
gang leaders and to pay for defense lawyers or fines, and are allegedly
reinvested into the organization to purchase drugs, guns and ammunition.
Beginning in or around 2009, Hernandez Celis was an
associate of the BA, during which time he used violence or threats of violence
to advance BA criminal activities, including stealing cars, managing drug
distribution points and collecting cuotas for a BA leader in Juarez, he
admitted.
Thirty-five members and associates of the BA gang, including
Hernandez Celis, were charged in a third superseding indictment unsealed in
March 2011 with various counts of racketeering, murder, drug offenses, money
laundering and obstruction of justice.
Of the 35 defendants charged, 33 have been apprehended, of whom 25 have pleaded
guilty, one has been convicted at trial and one committed suicide while
imprisoned during his trial. Hernandez
Celis was among three defendants, including Ricardo Valles De La Rosa, aka
Chino, and Alberto Nunez Payan, aka Fresa, recently extradited from
Mexico. Trial is currently scheduled for
Feb. 6, 2017. Three other defendants are
pending extradition from Mexico. U.S.
and Mexican law enforcement are actively seeking to apprehend the two remaining
fugitives in this case: Luis Mendez and Eduardo Ravelo, an FBI Top 10 Most
Wanted Fugitive.
The FBI’s El Paso Field Office and Albuquerque Field Office
(Las Cruces Resident Agency); DEA Juarez; and DEA El Paso investigated the
case. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco,
Firearms and Explosives; U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement; U.S.
Marshals Service; U.S. Customs and Border Protection; Federal Bureau of
Prisons; U.S. Diplomatic Security Service; Texas Department of Public Safety;
Texas Department of Criminal Justice; El Paso Police Department; El Paso County
Sheriff’s Office; El Paso Independent School District Police Department; Texas
Alcohol and Beverage Commission; New Mexico State Police; Dona Ana County, New
Mexico, Sheriff’s Office; Las Cruces, New Mexico, Police Department; Southern
New Mexico Correctional Facility; and Otero County Prison Facility New Mexico
provided special assistance.
Trial Attorney Joseph A. Cooley of the Criminal Division’s
Organized Crime and Gang Section, Trial Attorney Jay Bauer of the Criminal
Division’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section and Assistant U.S.
Attorney John Gibson of the Western District of Texas-El Paso Division are
prosecuting the case. The Criminal
Division’s Offices of International Affairs and Enforcement Operations provided
valuable assistance.
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