- Osiel Cardenas Junior, son of the former Gulf Cartel kingpin, has been sentenced to nine years for attempting to smuggle weapons from the US to Mexico.
- Cardenas Junior pleaded guilty to purchasing 10 assault rifles for export, despite being on supervised release for a similar crime at the time.
- The 31-year-old will serve 109 months in federal prison, three years of supervised release, and a fine of $20,000 for his role in the gun trafficking scheme.
Yesterday, Osiel Cardenas Junior – the son of one of Mexico’s biggest drug lords -was sentenced to more than nine years in prison for smuggling weapons from the United States to Mexico, at least that is what the U.S. Department of Justice announced.
The 31-year-old is a descendant of the former Gulf Cartel kingpin, Osiel Cardenas Guillen, who is currently serving a 25-year sentence in a U.S. prison. In the case of the recently accused, he pleaded guilty to attempting to purchase 10 assault rifles for export to our country on August 2.
What crimes does the son of the Gulf drug lord have to face?
Osiel Cárdenas Junior was accused of trying to buy five AK-47 rifles and five AR-15 rifles in April 2022. He and other defendants were caught red-handed during an undercover operation. According to the police report, the event occurred in the parking lot of a store in Brownsville, a city in Cameron County, Texas. The 31-year-old man had instructed another person to cross into Mexico to pick up $15,000 for the guns.
It is worth noting that at the time of his guilty plea, Osiel Cardenas Junior admitted that he committed the aforementioned crime while being supervised for another previous crime of the same magnitude. He is currently and will remain in U.S. authorities’ custody until he is transferred to a U.S . Bureau of Prisons facility. This action will determine the 31-year-old‘s legal future.
The sentence is nine years
The federal judge of the Southern District of Texas, Fernando Rodríguez Jr, sentenced Osiel Cárdenas Junior to serve 109 months in federal prison, in addition to three years of supervised release and the payment of a fine of 20 thousand dollars, which is 373,899 Mexican pesos. In addition, the magistrate noted that the defendant – a native of Texas – had two firearms-related cases in his criminal history and continued to engage in more criminal activities related to smuggling this type of ordnance.
Although Osiel Cardenas Junior apologized to the court and asked for leniency for committing a crime while on supervised release, he will be tried and sentenced promptly per U.S. law.