Drug cartel boss pleads guilty to international drug trafficking, ordering and committing related acts of gang violence

SAN DIEGO - A high-level member of the Mexico-based Sinaloa Cartel admitted in federal court in San Diego Wed. May 20, to helping transport tons of illicit narcotics into the United States and ordering or committing related acts of gang violence.

Jose Rodrigo Arechiga-Gamboa, 34, pleaded guilty during a hearing before U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw to conspiring to import cocaine and marijuana into the country and agreed to forfeit $1 million in unlawful proceeds.

The defendant, also known as Chino Antrax and Norberto Sicairos-Garcia, will face a maximum term of life in prison when he is sentenced in October,

according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in San Diego.

Arechiga-Gamboa was one of the highest-ranking Sinaloa Cartel leaders ever prosecuted in the United States, according to U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy.

"While we know that the world's most powerful drug syndicate continues to operate, we also know that it is under intense pressure after a succession

of high-impact, high-profile arrests and indictments of the organization's highest-ranking players,'' she said.

The cartel operates across multiple continents and nations, importing large quantities of narcotics into Mexico from Asia and Central and South American countries including Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Peru, Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras and Guatemala, according to prosecutors.

The underworld organization moves drugs by land, air and sea aboard cargo planes, private aircraft, submarines, container ships, supply vessels,

speedboats, fishing vessels, buses, rail cars, tractor trailers, trucks, automobiles, and private and commercial interstate and foreign carriers,

according to an indictment in the case.

The narcotics are then smuggled across the international border to San Diego via automobiles, tractor-trailers, trucks, fishing vessels and tunnels

and stored at various stash houses, safe houses and warehouses in San Diego County. The illicit substances then are transported and distributed to

communities throughout the United States.

In December 2013, a federal grand jury in San Diego returned an indictment charging Arechiga-Gamboa with conspiracy to import and distribute

controlled substances. He was taken into custody 10 days later at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam.

At the time of his arrest, Arechiga-Gamboa was traveling under an alias and had just arrived on a flight from Mexico City.

According to documents filed in support of Arechiga-Gamboa's extradition from the Netherlands, Arechiga-Gamboa worked for the Sinaloa Cartel as a

bodyguard and the leader of an enforcement group called "Los Antrax," providing security for drug shipments and conducting enforcement operations.

Arechiga-Gamboa later rose to become one of the primary leaders of the cartel, court documents state.

U.S. officials were able to identify Arechiga-Gamboa even though he used pseudonyms, traveled under a fake Mexican passport by assuming the identity of a dead person, underwent extensive plastic surgery and tried to alter his fingerprints, prosecutors said.

A Dutch court ordered last May that Arechiga-Gamboa be extradited to the United States to stand trial on narcotics-trafficking charges. He was

transferred to the United States in July, arriving at Lindbergh Field under heavy security.