Borderland Beat republished from My San Antonio by Jason Brusch
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A federal judge sentenced Rafael Cardenas Vela, a one-time Gulf Cartel plaza boss and the nephew of the cartel's former leader, to 20 years in prison Monday in Brownsville.
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Cardenas Vela, 41, (ti left)had previously pleaded guilty to conspiring to possess with intent to distribute more than five kilograms of cocaine and more than 1,000 kilograms of marijuana.
He was one of several Gulf Cartel plaza bosses arrested in the Rio Grande Valley in the fall of 2011 as the gang’s upper echelons tried to slip across the border to escape internal conflict in Mexico.
Agents arrested Cardenas Vela in October 2011 in Port Isabel. He later testified against childhood-friend-turned rival Juan Roberto Rincon in Rincon’s 2012 trial.
A federal judge also ordered Cardenas Vela to pay a $100,000 fine. Prosecutors are asking for a $5 million money judgment against him as well as a house they say he owns in Brownsville.
Cardenas Vela is the nephew of Osiel Cardenas Guillen, (bottom left) the Gulf Cartel’s former boss who was extradited to the U.S. in 2007, and Antonio Cardenas Guillen, Osiel’s brother and successor who was killed in Matamoros, Mexico, in 2010.
Cardenas Vela acted as the plaza boss, the overseer of cartel operations in a region, for several cities during his career, including Matamoros, the gang’s base, according to federal prosecutors.
Big thanks to "Pepe" for the heads up
Big thanks to "Pepe" for the heads up