WASHINGTON — The brother of a former leader of one of Mexico’s most violent drug cartels was sentenced Friday to more than 22 years in U.S. prison for helping operate a vast trafficking network that supplied cocaine and methamphetamine to American communities.
Antonio Oseguera Cervantes, whose brother co-founded the Jalisco New Generation cartel, known as El Mencho, pleaded guilty to drug trafficking charges in July. Mexican authorities handed him over to the United States last year along with other senior cartel figures.
His prosecution comes as the Trump administration intensifies its campaign against powerful criminal organizations, including the Jalisco New Generation cartel, or CJNG, which authorities say has contributed to the country’s drug crisis.
“Oseguera Cervantes’ sentence sends a clear message to criminals around the world that the Department of Justice is committed to the total elimination of drug cartels and transnational criminal organizations, including the CJNG,” Assistant Attorney General Tysen Duva, head of the department’s Criminal Division, said in an emailed statement.
Federal prosecutors identified Antonio Oseguera Cervantes, 68, as a resident of Michoacán, Mexico. They said he worked alongside his brother, Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, the drug lord known as El Mencho, who was killed by the Mexican army in February.
Prosecutors said Antonio Oseguera Cervantes led the Milenio Cartel before reporting directly to his brother after El Mencho rose to become the CJNG’s top leader.
In federal court in Washington, prosecutors had sought a 30-year sentence. They said his responsibilities included collecting CJNG drug proceeds, overseeing the cartel’s money-laundering operations and supervising methamphetamine laboratories.
“Rival cartels rarely settle disputes through diplomacy alone,” prosecutors wrote in court filings. “And while there may be no nonviolent drug cartels in Mexico, (Oseguera Cervantes) was a member of particularly brutal cartels.”
Oseguera Cervantes’ attorneys had asked for a 20-year sentence, arguing that he accepted full responsibility and had already spent several years imprisoned in Mexico for conduct that was essentially the same as the crimes to which he pleaded guilty in the United States.
Defense attorney Frank Perez said in an email Friday that the sentence was “appropriate, just, and fair under the circumstances.”
In a letter to the court, Oseguera Cervantes expressed regret, writing that he was “deeply sorry for my actions and for the harm they caused.”
“One of my greatest fears is that I will die far away from my family,” he wrote. “I love my children and my family very much, and I hope that I may one day have the opportunity to spend the remaining years of my life with them.”
Associated Press reporter Alanna Durkin Richer contributed from Washington.
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