The wheels of justice continue to turn as Salvador Garcia-Garcia, known as Ardilla, a former leader of the Barrio Azteca criminal organization, has been sentenced to 12 years in federal prison. The punishment comes after Garcia-Garcia's plea of guilty to a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act (RICO) offense, confirming the weight of his involvement in crimes that bridged the gap between Ciudad Juárez and El Paso.
Garcia-Garcia, a 56-year-old Mexican national, was pinpointed to be a key orchestrator in heroin shipments transported from Juarez into El Paso. His tenure in trafficking narcotics spanned from August 2010 to roughly September 2014. The defendant has also been charged with recruiting others to assist in the smuggling operations—an effort to maximize his illicit enterprise's reach quickly. On June 20, 2024, federal authorities arrested him, leading to his guilty plea on April 7, 2025.
According to a press release from the Department of Justice, Garcia-Garcia was initially charged with seven separate counts, including racketeering conspiracy, murder in aid of racketeering, three drug trafficking charges, conspiracy to launder money, and the transfer of a firearm to a prohibited person. However, only the RICO charge was pursued following his admission of guilt.
U.S. Attorney Justin R. Simmons, overseeing the Western District of Texas, announced the sentencing. This case is not the first conviction for the Barrio Azteca gang; 18 co-defendants have been sentenced since 2016. In one notable ruling, Juan Pablo Espino, another Barrio Azteca frontman, received concurrent sentences amounting to nearly 25 years for his own racketeering and money laundering charges in June 2017. This ongoing crackdown is a result of the combined efforts of the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations, the El Paso Police Department, and the Texas Department of Public Safety, with Assistant U.S. Attorneys Steve Spitzer and Antonio Franco leading the prosecution efforts.
The recent sentence against Garcia-Garcia marks another step in disrupting the operations of the Barrio Azteca, a criminal entity with a long-reaching influence over drug trafficking and associated violence in the border regions. The Justice Department's continued legal pressure aims to permanently dismantle the structured network that has for too long cast a shadow over communities straddling the Mexico-U.S. boundary.
