WASHINGTON - Aurelio Cano Flores, a Mexican national and
high ranking member of the Gulf Cartel, was sentenced today to serve 35 years
in prison for conspiring to import multi-ton quantities of cocaine and marijuana
into the United States, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Flores, 40, aka "Yankee" and "Yeyo," was one of 19 defendants
indicted in 2010 with drug trafficking offenses, federal officials stated.
He was extradited to the
United States from Mexico in August 2011.
Cano Flores began working for the Gulf Cartel in approximately
2001, while he was serving as a police officer in Mexico. During his time
as a police officer, Cano Flores recruited others into the Gulf Cartel,
collected drug money and escorted large shipments of cartel drugs to the U.S.
border.
DEA authorities
stated that Cano Flores ultimately rose through the ranks of the Gulf Cartel to
become a major transporter of narcotics within Mexico to the U.S. border and
became the Cartel's top representative in the important border town of Los
Guerra, Tamaulipas, Mexico.
As the "plaza boss" for Los
Guerra, Cano Flores oversaw the mass distribution of cocaine and marijuana into
the United States on a daily basis.
Testimony established that between 2000 and 2010, the Gulf Cartel
grew from an organization of only 100 members controlling three border towns to
an organization of 25,000 people controlling the drug trade over approximately
half of Mexico.
At a pret-trial hearing, federal
authorities proved that from 2000 to 2010, the Gulf Cartel distributed in
excess of 1.4 million kilograms of cocaine and 8,000 metric tons of marijuana.
Cano Flores was ordered to forfeit $15 billion in drug proceeds as
part of a money judgment.