WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — A Mexican leader of a drug-trafficking cartel, Alfredo Beltran Leyva, has been sentenced to life in prison for his role in a global narcotics conspiracy, the US Department of Justice said in a press release.
“For well over a decade, the defendant [Leyva] commanded a major Mexican drug trafficking organization that imported ton-quantities of cocaine and methamphetamine into the United States and led a campaign of violence and fear,” the release stated on Wednesday.
In 2012, Leyva was apprehended in Mexico and extradited to the United States two years later. The defendant pleaded guilty to receiving large import large quantities of cocaine from South America and facilitated imports into the United States.
According to the indictment, Leyva's organizations used firearms to kidnap, torture, and murder people as a part of the drug operation.