EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) — For nearly two decades, Jorge Sanchez Morales ran a large-scale drug trafficking organization that sent cocaine, meth and other drugs from Mexico into El Paso and off to Atlanta.
Sanchez, aka “Capulina,” was sentenced to life in prison, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced Thursday.
In the early 2000s, Sanchez worked out of Atlanta to traffic cocaine and other drugs with operatives from the Sinaloa cartel.
He eventually turned to liquid meth.
Prosecutors said Sanchez returned to Mexico in 2014 and began hiding liquid meth in fuel tankers before importing it from Juarez into El Paso and, eventually, transporting it to Atlanta. Only this time, he oversaw the operation on behalf of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, or CJNG.
Once in Atlanta, the liquid meth was converted to a crystalline form and distributed.
Last November, an El Paso jury found Sanchez guilty of conspiracy to import and possess with intent to distribute cocaine and methamphetamine, conspiracy to commit international money laundering, and laundering monetary instruments.
On Thursday, the court sentenced Sanchez to life in prison for the drug conspiracies and 20 years for conspiring and laundering monetary instruments. The court ordered the sentences to run concurrently.
“The men and women of DEA are laser-focused in our mission of defeating the Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels,” Greg Millard, Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration El Paso Division, said in a statement. “We will continue to tirelessly target these cartels and their associates involved in the manufacture or distribution of methamphetamine and other illicit, synthetic poisons that are killing Americans at record rates.”
The DEA, HSI, United States Border Patrol, El Paso Sheriff’s Office, Texas Department of Public Safety and Socorro Police Department investigated the case, according to a Department of Justice news release. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Steven Spitzer and Nathan Brown prosecuted the case.