CHICAGO (AP) - Five alleged members of a Mexican drug cartel have been charged in Chicago with conspiracy to transport cocaine into the city in 2018, the U.S. attorney’s office announced Thursday.
Three of those charged are believed to be in Mexico, but Louis Reyes Velez was arrested earlier this week in Cicero. Prosecutors say Velez was in Chicago in 2018 to arrange the $2.5 million cocaine shipment by the Sinaloa cartel, unware two of the people he was dealing with were working with federal law enforcement.
Also in custody is Roberto Velazquez Martinez, 36, who was extradited to Chicago last year after being arrested in Peru. A criminal complaint filed in Chicago alleges he masterminded the narcotics transaction, which involved flying about 375 kilograms of cocaine via private jet from Honduras to Mexico. Corrupt police officers were to escort the shipment to the U.S. border, court records show.
Informants working for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration recorded meetings with Martinez in Honduras in November 2018 where he allegedly bragged about being connected to top cartel bosses, according to the complaint against him.
“I work with a friend who is the third most wanted (by the DEA),” Martinez allegedly said, according to the complaint. “First was El Chapo, then the second, and he is the third.”
In addition to Martinez and Velez, 44, of Stickney, others charged with conspiracy were identified as Camilo Alvarez, 44, of Durango, Mexico; Jose Hernandez Ramirez, 36, of Tamaulipas, Mexico; Ines Chavez Rodriguez, 36, of Santiago Papasquiaro, Mexico.
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