A lot of attention has been paid to the anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement riots going on in Los Angeles.
For example, President Donald Trump himself has given the harrowing situation — and the leadership overseeing its response — plenty of attention.
As have the Marines who’ve been deployed to quell the chaotic situation, much to the chagrin of resistant Democratic leadership in the state.
(Democrats and critics have been arguing that Trump’s deployment of Marines and the National Guard has escalated the situation.)
Despite all of that chaos in California, Trump’s Department of Justice has made it clear that it’s still hard at work cracking down on major crime elsewhere in California.
The DOJ announced that a “Mexican national who operated as a high-level cocaine trafficker” was sentenced to nearly 20 years in prison on Monday.
Of note, the Mexican national’s web of crime mostly affected the very city the ICE riots are primarily taking place in.
“Jorge Humberto Perez Cazares, also known as Cadete, 41, of Sinaloa, Mexico, was a leader and organizer of a transnational drug trafficking organization that was responsible for shipping multiple tons of cocaine from Central America into Mexico for further distribution into the United States, specifically Los Angeles,” the DOJ noted.
“Perez Cazares used violence to protect his narcotics shipments and worked with a close affiliate of the co-leader of the Sinaloa Cartel,” it added.
“Drug traffickers like Perez Cazares use violence to profit off bringing poisonous drugs into the United States with no regard for the welfare of our citizens,” said Matthew R. Galeotti, Head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.
He added: “Today’s sentence demonstrates that the Department of Justice will not rest in bringing drug trafficking leaders to justice.”
Assistant Director Jose A. Perez of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division stressed the magnitude of this bust.
“This sentence marks the downfall of a trafficker who fueled violence and addiction on both sides of the border,” Perez said. “The FBI and our law enforcement partners will continue to target the command structure of these cartels and dismantle their operations.”
“Jorge ‘Cadete’ Perez Cazares wasn’t just moving multi-ton quantities of cocaine — he was fueling a criminal empire. Perez Cazares funneled substantial amounts of narcotics into the United States and profited off the pain of addiction,” Acting Administrator Robert Murphy of the Drug Enforcement Administration said. “The government proved he was no middleman — he was a leader. And now, justice is delivering a sentence worthy of the destruction he caused.”
Perez Cazares now faces 232 months in prison after the sentencing.
Authorities first targeted Perez Cazares in 2014, where initial raids yielded $1.4 million in cash and 70 kilograms of cocaine.
This case was part of “Operation Take Back America,” which is “a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and other transnational criminal organizations and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime.”
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