Mexican drug cartel member sentenced in plot to smuggle cocaine to Chicago
CHICAGO - A federal judge Tuesday sentenced a reputed member of the Sinaloa Cartel to more than 11 years in prison for plotting to transport large amounts of cocaine to the Chicago area.
Roberto Velazquez Martinez, 39, of Santiago Papasquiaro, Mexico, was sentenced to 136 months in federal prison Tuesday after pleading guilty earlier this year to a drug conspiracy charge, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois.
Prosecutors said Velazquez Martinez traveled to Chicago in the fall of 2018 to arrange a shipment of at least 40 kilograms of cocaine, but was unaware that two of the people he dealt with were working with U.S. law enforcement.
After a failed cocaine deal in Stickney on Dec. 4, 2018, Velazquez Martinez fled the country but was arrested in October 2019 in Lima, Peru and extradited back to the U.S. in December 2020.
Suspected Sinaloa Cartel members charged in plot to smuggle cocaine to Chicago
Five reputed members of the Sinaloa Cartel were charged in federal court in a plot to transport large amounts of cocaine to the Chicago area.
Velazquez Martinez was one of five cartel members charged in the plot. Camilo Alvarez, 44, Hernandez Ramirez, 36, and Ines Chavez Rodriguez, 36, are believed to still be living in Mexico, and have active warrants for their arrests.
Another of the alleged co-conspirators, Louis Reyes Velez of Stickney, was arrested in Cicero in March 2021. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges and is still awaiting trial.