US locks up high-ranking Mexican mob figure

A senior member of Mexico’s Sinaloa drug cartel who was behind an influx of heroin and cocaine onto the streets of Chicago was sentenced to 19 years in a US prison Wednesday.

Tomas Arevalo-Renteria, 46, had under his control some of the cartel’s couriers, who distributed large amounts of the drugs in the city and throughout the United States, prosecutors say.

He pleaded guilty last year to one count of conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute cocaine and heroin.

A senior member of Mexico’s Sinaloa drug cartel who was behind an influx of heroin and cocaine onto the streets of Chicago, seen here on January 28, 2014, was sentenced to 19 years in a US prison ©Scott Olson (Getty/AFP/File)

US authorities have gone after the Sinaloa cartel, its senior leadership and its nefarious activities, and Arevalo-Renteria is one of more than 20 alleged members of the cartel to be indicted in federal court in Chicago.

The indictments include charges against Sinaloa cartel kingpin Joaquin „El Chapo“ Guzman, who is on the run after escaping from a maximum-security Mexican prison.

The Chicago-based investigation has resulted in seizures of about $30 million and 11 tons of cocaine.

„The defendant was a full functioning member of one of the most dangerous criminal organizations in existence,“ Assistant US Attorney Michael Ferrara argued, before Arevalo-Renteria was sentenced in Chicago.

„The direct and indirect damage that those drugs have caused to communities in Chicago and elsewhere is immeasurable.“

Arevalo-Renteria has been in US custody since his arrest in Mexico in 2010.

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