EL PASO, TEXAS
The Barrio Azteca gunmen responsible for the March 2010 murders in Juarez, Mexico of a U.S. Consulate employee, her husband, and the husband of another U.S. Consulate employee were sentenced to life in prison on Monday.
“The gunmen who viciously shot and killed Leslie Enriquez, Arthur Redelfs, and Jorge Salcido Ceniceros will now deservedly spend the rest of their lives in prison,” said Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite, Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.
On Feb. 3, Jose Guadalupe Diaz Diaz, aka Zorro, 43, of Chihuahua, Mexico, and Martin Artin Perez Marrufo, aka Popeye, 54, also of Chihuahua, were found guilty of all 11 counts after a 13-day jury trial in the Western District of Texas, El Paso Division.
Diaz was extradited from Mexico on November 13, 2019, and Maruffo was extradited from Mexico on January 18, 2020.
The jury found Diaz and Marrufo guilty of conspiracy to commit racketeering, narcotics trafficking, narcotics importation, money laundering, and murder in a foreign country; three counts of murder in aid of racketeering; and three counts of murder resulting from the use and carrying of firearms during and about drug trafficking.
“The victims, in this case, were coming from a child’s birthday party when they were misidentified as targets by members of Barrio Azteca and gunned down in a senseless act of violence,” said U.S. Attorney Ashley C. Hoff for the Western District of Texas.
Evidence presented at trial demonstrated that on March 13, 2010, Diaz and Marrufo served as gunmen on the hit teams that murdered U.S. Consulate employee Leslie Enriquez, her husband, Arthur Redelfs, and Jorge Salcido Ceniceros, the husband of another U.S. Consulate employee.
The victims were targeted by the hit teams after leaving a child’s birthday party in Juarez because they were initially mistaken for rival gang members.
Diaz shot and killed Enriquez and Redelfs. Marrufo shot and killed Ceniceros.
The three life-in-prison sentences will run consecutive to the sentences imposed on all other counts.
“Today’s sentencing demonstrates the FBI’s commitment to fighting the senseless violence that transnational criminal organizations continue to inflict on the American people, wherever they reside,” said Assistant Director Luis Quesada of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division.
As proven at trial, Barrio Azteca is a transnational criminal organization engaged in, among other things, money laundering, racketeering, and drug-related activities in El Paso, Texas, among other places.
The gang allied with other drug gangs to battle the Sinaloa Cartel, at the time headed by Joaquín “Chapo” Guzman, and its allies for control of the drug trafficking routes through Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico.
The drug routes through Juarez, known as the Juarez Plaza, are important to drug trafficking organizations because it is a principal illicit drug trafficking route into the United States.
A total of 35 defendants were charged in the third superseding indictment and are alleged to have committed various criminal acts, including the 2010 Juarez Consulate murders in Juarez, Mexico, as well as racketeering, narcotics distribution and importation, retaliation against persons providing information to U.S. law enforcement, extortion, money laundering, murder, and obstruction of justice.
Of the 35 defendants charged, all have been apprehended. Of those apprehended, 28 have pleaded guilty, three (including Diaz and Maruffo) have been convicted by a jury following trial, one committed suicide before the conclusion of his trial, and three are awaiting extradition from Mexico.
The extraditions resulted from close coordination between U.S. and Mexican law enforcement authorities, who have cooperated in the investigation and prosecution of this case.