(NewsNation) — A Mexican national was sentenced to more than two decades in prison for his role in an what the Department of Justice said was an "international conspiracy" to transport tens of thousands of kilograms of cocaine into the United States.
Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said for more than three decades, Raul Flores-Hernandez, 71, worked with the leaders of the "world's largest, most violent cartels," including Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman of the Sinaloa Cartel, to traffic drugs into the United States.
Court documents say Flores-Hernandez was the leader of a drug trafficking organization that trafficked hundreds of millions of dollars worth of cocaine from South America through Mexico and into the United States.
In 2003 alone, he and his partners smuggled more than two tons of cocaine into Mexico every week using oil tanks, the Department of Justice said. Officials say at least half of this cocaine was imported into the United States.
Then, in 2007 and 2008, Flores-Hernandez sent tens of millions dollars to Colombia to purchase cocaine.
Flores-Hernandez pleaded guilty in March 2023 to an international cocaine trafficking conspiracy, the Justice Department said in a news release. On Friday, Flores-Hernandez was given a sentence of 21 years and 10 months in prison and ordered to forfeit $280 million. Although his guilty plea and sentencing took place in Washington, D.C., Flores-Hernandez is also under indictment in two San Diego cases, according to The San Diego Union-Tribune.
The Drug Enforcement Agency's Los Angeles Field Division and San Ysidro Office, as well as Homeland Security Investigations San Diego, were part of the probe, with help from the U.S. Marshals Service's Investigative Operations Division.
“It may be impossible to quantify the destruction wrought by this defendant channeling vast quantities of cocaine across the globe,” said U.S. Attorney Tara McGrath for the Southern District of California. “One thing is certain — the world is far safer with this sentence.”