"El Mochomito" Sanctioned by OFAC

Treasury Press Release

WASHINGTON — Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned Mexican national Jesus Alfredo Beltran Guzman, a key leader of the Beltran Leyva Organization (BLO), for playing a significant role in the trafficking of illicit drugs, including fentanyl, cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine, into the United States.  One of the most powerful drug trafficking organizations in the world, the BLO is heavily involved in the transportation and distribution of deadly drugs, including fentanyl, to the United States, and has been one of the largest suppliers of cocaine to the U.S. market for over two decades.  OFAC carried out this investigation in coordination with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

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Alfredo "Mochomo" Beltran Leyva Pleads Guilty in U.S Federal Court

Lucio R. for Borderland Beat

There will be no jury trial in the Alfredo Beltran Leyva case.  He filed with the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, a waiver of right to jury trial, and pleads guilty to trafficking cocaine and meth.  

Beltran Leyva, known by his moniker “El Mochomo”, was accused of being a kingpin, or leader of Beltran Leyva Organization (BLO), a charge he still contends is not factual. In court before Judge Richard Leon, he declared “I was a member, not a leader”.

In the hearing he did admit to being a part of BLO, and to trafficking drugs for 12 years, through the year of 2012.    This includes the years of 2008-2012, when he was incarcerated in a Mexican Prison.

Mochomo was extradited to the U.S. in November 2014.

The case against Mochomo was stacked with cooperative witnesses, 6 of whom are heavy narco hitters, Margarito Flores, El Rey Zambada, La Barbie Villareal Valdez, La Grande, Margarito Flores and a Colombian Juan Carlos “Chupeta” Ramirez.  There appeared to be little in substantive evidence against the defendant.  But, in a U.S. court, jurors would have little or no knowledge of the narco world and perhaps with an abundance of witnesses (11) testifying, getting an acquittal would have been too much a gamble.

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