Who Is The Partner Of The Sinaloa Cartel Who Negotiated Their Sentence With The United States?

Mica for cartelinsider.com

Raúl Flores Hernández, known in the world of crime as “El Tío”, was sentenced to 21 years in prison in the United States last week. To obtain those years of jail time, the partner of the Sinaloa Cartel negotiated with the authorities of the neighboring country to avoid a life sentence.

Flores Hernández was accused of being one of the main drug traffickers during the last three decades, transporting thousands of kilograms of cocaine into American territory.

The attorney general of the US, Merrick B. Garland, stated that this individual managed to evade judicial authorities for over 30 years by closely collaborating with leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel, including Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán.

According to the Riodoce medium, Flores Hernandez chose to negotiate with the American government, which allowed him to avoid a life sentence, in exchange for cooperating with prosecutors and paying a sum of 280 million dollars as compensation.

After negotiations, El Tío joined a list of Mexican drug traffickers such as Benjamín Arellano Félix, Reynaldo Zambada García, Dámaso López Núñez, Osiel Cárdenas Guillén, and Javier Torres Félix, known as “el JT”, among others, who reached an agreement with North American authorities to gain a benefit in their sentence.

These individuals, who were identified by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) as responsible for the drug addiction crisis in the United States and the increase in violence in Mexico, eventually cooperated with authorities and, after paying hefty fines and admitting their guilt, managed to obtain reduced convictions compared to what they initially faced.

El Tío, who is also accused of being an operator of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), pleaded guilty to conspiracy to traffic international narcotics before a US Court in the District of Columbia in March 2023.

The DEA reported in a statement that the sentence covers four decades of illicit activities in which Flores Hernandez facilitated the transportation of “tens of thousands of kilograms” of cocaine, valued at hundreds of millions of dollars, from South America, through Mexico, to the United States.

The partner of the Sinaloa Cartel used oil tanks to smuggle more than two tons to Mexico weekly, of which one ton was destined for the US market, according to US court documents.

In these reports, it is also noted that El Tío had very prominent partners such as Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ and Héctor Beltrán Leyva. It is specified that this drug lord created a network of front companies through which he managed to bring cocaine into Mexico, but mainly into the state of Jalisco.

According to the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the U.S. Department of Treasury, among this series of companies there are nightclubs, gas companies, real estate businesses, and even a sports club, known as Club Deportivo Morumbi A.C. (Autlán Warriors team).

Despite this entire network, “mid-level characters” of the Sinaloa Cartel assured Ríodoce that they had no idea who Flores Hernández was within the organization.

“Perhaps the bosses knew him, but we never heard of him,” explained the person consulted by the renowned media outlet on drug trafficking issues, and added that “the cartel is very large; there are people we don’t even know.”

Raúl Flores Hernández was captured on July 20, 2017 and extradited in February 2021.

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Mica

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