Martinez-Gutierrez
After more than a decade, a high-ranking Gulf Cartel member wanted for his alleged role in smuggling nearly seven tons of marijuana during a four-year period made an appearance in McAllen federal court after the U.S. extradited him from Mexico.
Cleofas Alberto Martinez-Gutierrez, also known as “El Guero,” made a first appearance Monday morning in front of U.S. Magistrate Judge J. Scott Hacker on a 10-count indictment from 2012 charging him with money laundering and smuggling approximately 13,624 pounds of marijuana between 2009 and 2012, court records indicate.
Martinez is one of 22 suspects charged in the case. All of his co-defendants, with the exception of three, have pleaded guilty and have been sentenced.
A jury acquitted one suspect after a trial and two suspects’ names remain redacted in the indictment, meaning they are not in custody.
The leader of the drug trafficking organization on the U.S. side — Daniel Nunez — is serving life in prison.
A news release from 2014 announcing his sentence said that Nunez’s organization would cross marijuana through the Rio Grande in the Military Highway area and then transport it to stash locations in Edinburg and Hargill.
“From there, the marijuana would be taken to another stash location where it would be loaded onto tractor trailers for further distribution in the Dallas area as well as Panama City and Orlando, Fla., and Steel, Ala. areas,” the release stated.
He then arranged the transportation of drug proceeds from various locations in Florida back to Hidalgo County for transport into Mexico.
As for Martinez, authorities in Mexico arrested him in Mexico City in 2016 and a news release from the Prosecutor General’s Office of Mexico said he was extradited to the United States this month.
Federal court records indicate he was arrested in Houston on Oct. 20.
He is charged in each count of the indictment.
Seven of the counts allege he was involved in the distribution of approximately 13,624 pounds of marijuana on seven occasions. In five of those instances, federal prosecutors allege each load was more than a ton.
He is also charged with a money laundering conspiracy count and a count alleging he transported $365,650 in drug proceeds from Florida to Mexico.
The indictment also has a count of conspiracy to distribute more than a ton of marijuana from August 2009 to Feb. 6, 2012.
Following his initial appearance, Hacker, the magistrate judge, remanded him to the custody of the U.S. Marshals.
