Barrio Azteca gang member sentenced to 20 years in prison
A Barrio Azteca gang member was sentenced to 20 years in prison for his participation in a racketeering conspiracy and drug trafficking offenses, the U.S. Justice Department announced Thursday.
Luis Humberto Hernandez Celis, 32, of El Paso, was sentenced before U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone on charges of racketeering conspiracy; conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute controlled substances; and conspiracy to import heroin, cocaine and marijuana.
According to court documents, since Jan. 1, 2003, members and associates of the Barrio Azteca gang have engaged in a host of such criminal activity, including the March 13, 2010, murders in Juarez of U.S. consulate employee Leslie Ann Enriquez Catton, her husband Arthur Redelfs and Jorge Alberto Salcido Ceniceros, the husband of a U.S. consulate employee.
Federal officials said the Barrio Azteca gang began operating in the late 1980s as a violent prison gang. It has since expanded into a transnational criminal organization based in West Texas; Juarez, Mexico; and throughout state and federal prisons in the U.S. and Mexico.
The gang relies on a militaristic command structure that includes “captains,” “lieutenants,” “sergeants” and “soldiers” to maintain power and enriches members and associates through drug trafficking, money laundering, extortion, intimidation, violence, threats of violence and murder, federal officials said.
Admissions made in connection with Hernandez Celis’s plea agreement reveal the gang generates profits by importing heroin, cocaine and marijuana into the U.S. from Mexico. Hernandez Celis admitted gang members and associates allegedly charge a “street tax” or “cuota” on businesses and criminals operating on their turf.
These profits are allegedly used to support gang members in prison. Federal officials said money is funneled into prison commissary accounts of gang leaders and to pay for defense lawyers or fines, and are allegedly reinvested into the organization to purchase drugs, guns and ammunition.
Beginning in or around 2009, Hernandez Celis used violence or threats to advance the gang’s criminal activities, including stealing cars, managing drug distribution points and collecting cuotas for a gang leader in Juarez.
Thirty-five members and associates of the gang, including Hernandez Celis, 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.
Of the 35 defendants charged, 33 have been arrested. 25 have pleaded guilty, one has been convicted at trial, and one committed suicide while imprisoned during his trial, federal officials said.
Hernandez Celis was among three defendants, including Ricardo Valles De La Rosa and Alberto Nunez Payan, recently extradited from Mexico. Trial is currently scheduled for Feb. 6, 2017.
Three other defendants are pending extradition from Mexico.
Law enforcement agencies on both sides of the border are currently looking for the two remaining fugitives in this case: Luis Mendez and Eduardo Ravelo, an FBI Top 10 Most Wanted Fugitive.
