Ex-Chihuahua state policeman turned Sinaloa cartel member sentenced

EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) — A Sinaloa cartel member, who secured stash houses where tanker trucks carrying cocaine were unloaded and reloaded with weapons and cash, was sentenced to life in prison on Monday.

Arturo Shows Urquidi, aka “Chous,” of Juarez, Mexico, was a former state policeman and a long-time member of the Sinaloa Cartel under Ismael “Mayo” Zambada-Garcia.

A jury in October convicted Shows, 50, of conspiracy to violate the Racketeering Influenced Corrupt Organization statute (RICO); conspiracy to possess cocaine and marijuana; conspiracy to import cocaine and marijuana; conspiracy to launder money; and conspiracy to possess firearms in furtherance of drug trafficking crimes.

In a statement issued Thursday, U.S. Attorney Ashley C. Hoff said investigating and prosecuting members of dangerous transnational criminal organizations remains a top priority of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas.

“This sentence is a significant step in holding the members of the Sinaloa Cartel accountable for the crimes they have committed for years,” Hoff said. “The prosecution of this case clearly demonstrates how strong cooperation between federal, state and local law enforcement agencies can effectively combat the illegal activity of transnational criminal organizations.”

The jury convicted Urquidi alongside 36-year-old Mario Iglesias Villegas, a former cartel hitman from Villa Ahumada, Chihuahua, known among other things, as the “Grim Reaper.” Iglesias was found guilty of five counts of violent crimes in aid of racketeering, conspiracy to kill in a foreign country, and kidnapping. His sentencing is on March 24.

During closing arguments, prosecutors and defense attorneys argued over the legitimacy of testimony by at least a dozen incarcerated members of the Sinaloa cartel. Urquidi and Iglesias sat stoically as their former colleagues testified against them.

The trial was part of a grander indictment by a federal grand jury that included Sinaloa cartel leaders Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman and Zambada.

Prosecutors say the Sinaloa Cartel’s war with the Juarez Cartel and its criminal activity in Juarez and across the border in El Paso, Texas, led to the death of thousands of people in Juarez and throughout the Mexican states of Chihuahua and Durango.