By Gangsters Inc. Editors
Two brothers with ties to Cartel de Jalisco Nuevo Generación, one of Mexico’s most powerful cartels, have been sentenced last week to a combined 70 years in federal prison for methamphetamine and money laundering offenses.
Pedro Hernandez Zarate, a 45 year-old Mexican national staying in the United States illegally, and his brother Ricardo Hernandez Zarate, a 33-year-old legal resident, were charged in March 2021. Ricardo pleaded guilty in February 2022 to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine and money laundering, and was sentenced in November 2022 to 40 years in federal prison (40 years on the drug charges and 20 years on the money laundering charges, to run concurrently). Pedro pleaded guilty in November 2021 to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine and was sentenced on February 9 to 30 years in federal prison.
Transferring liquid meth
Pedro helped coordinate the transfer of approximately 112 liquid gallons of methamphetamine – a quantity with a street value of more than $9.9 million dollars -- to codefendants who planned to transport it from Texas to Oklahoma. The liquid meth – which arrived in Dallas in the diesel tank of a tractor trailer before being transferred into a holding tank and then given over to Pedro’s co-defendants – was seized by law enforcement in Gainesville, Texas.
Photo: Containers of liquid methamphetamine recovered by law enforcement in Gainsville, Texas
Agents linked the meth shipment to the Cartel de Jalisco Nuevo Generación, one of the two largest and most dangerous drug cartels in Mexico.
Meanwhile, Ricardo acted as a Dallas-area cell head, sourcing his methamphetamine from two suppliers in Mexico and selling kilogram quantities of meth, which he called “shaved ice,” to customers. He also instructed people to deliver methamphetamine in other parts of Texas.
Co-defendant Elmer Gardea Tello was previously sentenced to a term of 55 months confinement for his involvement in drug trafficking.
Eight additional defendants – including Benito Diaz Hernandez, Marcos Garcia Reyes, Rafael Diaz, Jose Alberto Plascencia Torres, Heleodoro Rosales Ramirez, Salvador Antonio Martinez, Walter Daniel Chapa Marty, and Uriel Marin Gaona – have entered guilty pleas in the case and await sentencing.
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