A Mexican drug cartel tried to use fentanyl and methamphetamine to acquire a slew of weapons from Europe, the U.S. Justice Department alleges in an unsealed indictment.
Factions of the Jalisco New Generation cartel, known by its Spanish acronym CJNG, allegedly attempted to buy the weapons from the Czech Republic and were arrested in June.
“The weapons included different kinds of European machine guns, rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) launchers, 61mm mortar launchers, and accompanying ammunition and ordnance,” the indictment states.
According to the indictment, Edgar Alejandro Lopez Velasco, Noe Di Jimenez, Leobardo Gaxiola Lopez, and Jose Miguel Alvarado Morales traveled to the Czech Republic June 9-10 to complete the deal. As part of the deal, the cartel planned to distribute fentanyl and methamphetamine in the U.S.
The indictment states that the men “traveled to the Czech Republic for, among other things, completing the sale of weapons for CJNG, negotiating the distribution of more than 400 grams of fentanyl and more than 500 grams of methamphetamine, and meeting with a new potential supplier of precursor chemicals used to manufacture synthetic narcotics.”
The men were arrested in the early morning hours of June 10 and face life in prison on a variety of charges, including drug importation conspiracy and firearms trafficking.
The indictment also lays out the current state of the CJNG cartel in the aftermath of the death of its leader, Nemesio Ruben Oseguera Cervantes. Cervantes was killed during government raids in February of this year.
After Cervantes was killed, “CJNG retaliated across at least 20 Mexican states, its gunmen creating burning blockades, setting fire to vehicles, ambushing Mexican security forces, and engaging in public firefights that resulted in the deaths of dozens of people,” the indictment states.
Cervantes’s death also split CJNG into at least three different factions that essentially operate as a federation. The factions function independently but are affiliated and cooperate with one another
