WASHINGTON D.C.
A Mexican man was sentenced Friday to 21 years and ten months in prison and ordered to forfeit $280 million for his role in an international conspiracy to transport tens of thousands of pounds of cocaine into the United States for four decades, officials stated.
In March 2023, Raul Flores-Hernandez, 71, pleaded guilty in federal court in Washington, D.C. to an international cocaine trafficking conspiracy.
According to court documents, Flores-Hernandez was the leader of a drug trafficking organization responsible for trafficking hundreds of millions of dollars worth of cocaine from South America through Mexico and into the United States.
For example, in 2003, Flores-Hernandez and his partners used oil tanks to smuggle more than two tons of cocaine into Mexico every week, at least half of which was imported into the United States.
In 2007 and 2008, Flores-Hernandez sent tens of millions of dollars in U.S. currency to Colombia to purchase cocaine.
During his time as a narcotrafficker, Flores-Hernandez was closely aligned with the leaders of some of the most violent drug cartels, including Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman of the Sinaloa Cartel and Hector Beltran of the Beltran Leyva Organization.
“Raul Flores Hernandez spent decades working closely with El Chapo and others to transport hundreds of kilograms of cocaine from South America, through Mexico, into the United States, knowing it would devastate American communities,” said Administrator Anne Milgram of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). “He will now spend decades in prison.”
The DEA Los Angeles Field Division, San Ysidro Office, and HSI San Diego investigated the case with assistance from the U.S. Marshals Service’s Investigative Operations Division.
The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs worked with Mexican authorities to secure the arrest and extradition of Flores-Hernandez.