Sinaloa Cartel Associate Sentenced to Over 11 Years for Conspiring to Traffic Cocaine in Chicago Area
CHICAGO — Sheila G. Lyons, Special Agent in Charge of U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration Chicago Field Division, and Acting U.S. Attorney Morris Pasqual for the Northern District of Illinois announced that an associate of the Sinaloa drug cartel has been sentenced to over 11 years in federal prison for conspiring to traffic at least 40 kilograms of cocaine in the Chicago area.
Roberto Velazquez Martinez, 39, of Santiago Papasquiaro, Mexico, conspired with several individuals to import and distribute the cocaine into the United States on behalf of drug traffickers in Mexico. Velazquez traveled to Chicago in the fall of 2018 to arrange a multi-kilogram cocaine shipment with co-conspirators and two other individuals who were posing as Columbian drug traffickers but who were actually working confidentially with U.S. law enforcement. Velazquez fled the U.S. after a failed cocaine deal in Stickney, Illinois, on Dec. 4, 2018. He was arrested in 2019 in Peru and extradited to the U.S. in 2020.
Velazquez pleaded guilty earlier this year to a drug conspiracy charge. U.S. District Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow imposed the 136-month prison sentence Tuesday after a hearing in federal court in Chicago.
Valuable assistance was provided by the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Marshals Service, and INTERPOL. The government was represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Aaron R. Bond.
The investigation was conducted with the support of the Chicago HIDTA and OCDETF Task Forces, which are comprised of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies working together to identify, disrupt, and dismantle the most serious drug trafficking organizations.
Velazquez was originally charged with four alleged co-conspirators. Three of the alleged co-conspirators are considered fugitives and warrants have been issued for their arrests, while the fourth, Louis Reyes Velez, of Stickney, Ill., has pleaded not guilty to the charges and is awaiting trial.
