El Tochín pleads guilty in U.S. cocaine case
Punto Norte reports that Gerardo Julio Rueda Torres, known as El Tochín, admitted to cocaine-importation and money-laundering conspiracies. The plea agreement says he supervised about 50 kilograms of cocaine a week for more than 10 years and moved cash from the United States to Mexico. Sentencing is scheduled for December 4.
Gerardo Julio Rueda Torres, known as “El Tochín,” pleaded guilty in U.S. federal court to conspiring to import cocaine and to launder drug proceeds, Punto Norte reports. The 49-year-old U.S. national was identified in the report as one of the leaders of Los Rusos, a faction of the Sinaloa Cartel operating in the Mexicali area.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California, Rueda Torres admitted that he participated in money laundering for the Sinaloa Cartel for about 20 years. The plea agreement says he supervised the movement of approximately 50 kilograms of cocaine a week from Mexico into the United States for more than 10 years. The drugs were carried in private vehicles from Mexicali to Imperial County, California, and then moved onward to places including Arizona and Los Angeles.
Punto Norte reports that Rueda Torres was arrested in Mexicali in December 2024 by Baja California’s State Citizen Security Force, in coordination with Mexico’s National Institute of Migration. At the time, local authorities said he had been wanted in the United States for more than seven years under an active arrest warrant. The report says he was arrested while gambling at a casino and later transferred to U.S. authorities; the case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations, the DEA and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Rueda Torres also admitted that he had armed people available to protect him and other Los Rusos leaders from possible attacks by Los Chapitos, described in the report as a rival Sinaloa Cartel faction. He said cash deliveries sent from the United States to Mexico eventually reached as much as $500,000 per shipment, after he initially carried about $30,000 himself. He pleaded guilty to cocaine-importation conspiracy, which carries a mandatory minimum of 10 years and up to life in prison, and money-laundering conspiracy, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years. U.S. District Judge Robert S. Huie is scheduled to sentence him on December 4.