A former leader of the Barrio Azteca criminal organization has been sentenced to a 12-year stint in federal prison, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Texas has announced. The man, Salvador Garcia-Garcia, also known as Ardilla, was convicted of a RICO offense after coordinating heroin shipments from Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, to El Paso, Texas.
Garcia-Garcia, 56, ran the narcotics smuggling operations between August 1, 2010, and September 10, 2014. According to court documents, he was indicted back on September 10, 2014, for various offenses, including racketeering, murder in aid of racketeering, and drug trafficking, among others. He was captured by federal authorities on June 20, 2024, and entered a guilty plea for the RICO charge on April 7, 2025, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
The case spanned over several years and involved numerous defendants associated with Barrio Azteca. In June 2017, Juan Pablo Espino, another leader of the organization, received concurrent sentences. He was ordered to serve 240 and 299 months, respectively, for racketeering activity and money laundering counts.
