California prosecutors unseal first ever narco-terrorism indictment against Mexican drug traffickers

Federal prosecutors in San Diego unsealed a first-of-its-kind indictment Tuesday, alleging narco-terrorism charges against suspected drug traffickers linked to the Sinaloa cartel.

The criminal indictment against members of the Beltrán Leyva organization, which prosecutors described as a violent faction of the Sinaloa cartel responsible for one of the largest fentanyl production networks in the world, is the first use of narco-terrorism charges against a Mexican-based drug-trafficking organization. The Trump administration paved the way for such charges earlier this year when it designated the Sinaloa cartel and five other Mexican criminal groups as Foreign Terrorist Organizations and Specially Designated Global Terrorists.

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“To the leaders of the Sinaloa cartel, you are no longer the hunters, you are the hunted,” San Diego-area U.S. Attorney Adam Gordon said during a Tuesday morning news conference announcing the indictment. “You will be betrayed by your friends, you will be hounded by your enemies, and you will ultimately find yourself and your fates here, in a courtroom in the Southern District of California.”

It’s believed that all the defendants named in the indictment remain at large. Along with counts of narco-terrorism and providing material support to terrorism, the indictment contains charges more typically used against leaders of drug-trafficking organizations, such as drug and money laundering conspiracy charges and engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise.

“The Sinaloa cartel is a complex, dangerous terrorist organization and dismantling them demands a novel, powerful legal response,” U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement. “Their days of brutalizing the American people without consequence are over — we will seek life in prison for these terrorists.”

Pedro Inzunza Noriega, 62. (Courtesy of U.S. Department of the Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control)

The lead defendant in the indictment is 62-year-old Pedro Inzunza Noriega, who also goes by the monikers “Sagitario” and “El de la Silla,” a reference to the wheelchair he has used since he was partially paralyzed in a shooting by a rival cartel, Gordon said. His son, 33-year-old Pedro Inzunza Coronel, was also named in the indictment.

“They are … (the) leaders of one of the largest and most sophisticated fentanyl production networks in the world,” Gordon said, adding that since the early 2000s, Inzunza Noriega has also been one of the top traffickers of cocaine into the U.S.

In a motion to unseal the indictment, Assistant U.S. Attorney Joshua Mellor wrote that over the past several years, the father and son “have trafficked tens of thousands of kilograms of fentanyl into the United States.”

Mellor wrote that in December, Mexican law enforcement raided multiple fentanyl production labs across Sinaloa that were controlled by the father and son and made the world’s largest ever fentanyl seizure, which totaled more than 3,300 pounds of the ultra-potent drug.

The U.S. Department of Justice and Department of the Treasury had identified Inzunza Noriega in 2023 as one of the three top leaders of the Beltrán Leyva organization alongside Oscar Manuel Gastelum Iribe, alias “El Musico,” and Fausto Isidro Meza Flores, who is also known as “Chapo Isidro” and is the subject of a $5 million reward by the FBI. Both Gastelum Iribe and Meza Flores have been indicted in multiple federal districts in the U.S., including San Diego.

The Beltrán Leyva organization was once one of Mexico’s most powerful drug cartels and was so named for five brothers who led the group. Mellor said during Tuesday’s news conference that the group has always had strong ties to the Sinaloa cartel, despite some periods of violent disputes, including a particularly bloody period that began around 2008.

“But they’ve always remained part of the Sinaloa cartel, and in fact in about 2019 or 2020, they kind of reconstituted and split up territories and areas and put forth some ground rules for the different factions,” Mellor said.

In the motion to unseal the indictment, Mellor alleged that the Beltrán Leyva faction now controls the drug trade in several states and regions across Mexico, including Tijuana, “and operates with violent impunity … all while making millions of dollars from their criminal activities.”

Gordon said the indictments against the Beltrán Leyva organization leadership add to an expanding prosecution against the Sinaloa cartel by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Diego. He said local prosecutors have previously indicted Sinaloa cartel leaders Ivan “Chapito” Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar, one of the sons of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, the legendary Sinaloa kingpin who is now imprisoned in the U.S.; Ismael “Mayito Flaco” Zambada Sicairos, the son of former Sinaloa cartel co-leader Ismael ” El Mayo” Zambada García, who is in U.S. custody; and Jose “El Chino” Gil Caro Quintero, the cousin of former drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero, the alleged mastermind behind the 1985 slaying of Drug Enforcement Administration Agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena.

Gordon declined to answer questions at Tuesday’s news conference about a recent video that showed 17 family members of Ovidio Guzmán López, another son of “El Chapo,” entering the U.S. from Tijuana. But the Associated Press reported Tuesday that Mexican Security Secretary Omar García Harfuch confirmed the report, which was first published by independent journalist Luis Chaparro.

The video showed the family members walking across the border from Tijuana with their suitcases to waiting U.S. agents, according to the Associated Press.

Rumors had circulated last week that Guzmán López would plead guilty to avoid trial for several drug trafficking charges in the U.S. after being extradited in 2023. The news service reported that García Harfuch confirmed the family members’ crossing in a radio interview and said it was clear to Mexican authorities that they were doing so after negotiations between Guzmán López and the U.S. government.