Luis Robert Velazquez, a Texas man involved in distributing a large quantity of drugs for Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación, a group designated as a foreign terrorist organization, has received a sentence of over 11 years in federal prison. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Texas announced the sentencing this week, following a guilty plea from Velazquez back in July 2025.
According to the U.S. Attorney Ryan Raybould, this case was meant to "send a clear message" about the fate of those who "dump poison into our streets." In a statement obtained by the Justice Department, Raybould detailed the years of hard work and interagency cooperation that it took to successfully prosecute a connection to a senior cartel leader. The Dallas Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) played a critical role in reducing the narcotic flow into neighborhoods and securing Velazquez's lengthy prison term.
Documents reveal that Velazquez confessed to trafficking around 300 kilograms of methamphetamine and sizable quantities of heroin and cocaine on behalf of his CJNG superiors based in Mexico. This trafficking spanned less than five months from November 2024 to April 2025. As part of the operation, he also admitted to laundering the resulting U.S. currency back to Mexico.
Velazquez was sentenced on January 5 to 135 months in federal prison by U.S. Senior District Judge David Godbey. "The sentence of Mr. Velazquez reflects our continued focus on dismantling foreign terrorist organizations that traffic deadly drugs into our communities," DEA Dallas Special Agent in Charge Joseph B. Tucker said, as reported by the Justice Department. The HSTF under Executive Order 14159 has been targeting not just drug trafficking but also criminal cartels, foreign gangs, and organized crime involved in human smuggling and child trafficking.
