Barrio Azteca Member Pleads Guilty To Racketeering
A member of the Barrio Azteca gang who is currently serving a jail sentence for murder in Texas on Thursday pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy, Department of Justice and DEA officials announced.
El Pasoan Hector Galindo, 37, aka “Silent,” pleaded guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge Norbert Garney, in the Western District of Texas, El Paso Division.
According to information presented in court, Galindo, helped distribut narcotics, including heroin, into and within the prison system all while imprisoned. He also helped direct extortion funds collected by BA members outside of prison to the commissary accounts of fellow BA members in prison.
He has been serving a 25-year sentence since 1992. Galindo faces a maximum penalty of life in prison. A sentencing date has not yet been set by the court.
Thirty-five members and associates of the BA gang, including Galindo and 17 others who have pleaded guilty, were charged in a third superseding indictment unsealed in March 2011 with various counts of racketeering, murder, drug offenses, money laundering and obstruction of justice. Trial is set to begin April 6, 2012.
The racketeering case also involves the of murders of El Pasoans Lesley Ann Enriquez Catton and her husband, Arthur Redelfs. She was a U.S. consulate employee in Juarez. He was an El Paso County Detention officer. She was also pregnant at the time.
They were shot dead in Juarez after leaving a children’s birthday party in March 2010. The husband of another U.S. Consulate employee, Jorge Alberto Salcido Ceniceros, was also killed after leaving the same party.
