Alfredo Beltrán Leyva (born January 21, 1971), commonly referred to by his alias El Mochomo (The Desert Ant), is a Mexican convicted

drug lord A drug lord, drug baron, kingpin, or lord of drugs is a type of crime boss in charge of a drug trafficking network, organization, or enterprise. Crime barons may be difficult to bring to justice: usually, they do not possess illegal goods. Ra ...

and former leader of the Beltrán-Leyva Cartel, a drug trafficking organization. He was one of Mexico's most-wanted drug lords. Beltrán Leyva was responsible for smuggling multi-ton shipments of cocaine and methamphetamine to the United States from Mexico and South America between the 1990s and 2000s. He worked alongside his brothers Héctor, Carlos, and

Arturo Arturo is a Spanish and Italian variant of the name Arthur. People * Arturo Alessandri (1868–1950), Chilean politician and president * Arturo Álvarez (footballer, born 1985), American-born Salvadoran footballer * Arturo Álvarez (footballer, bo ...

. In January 2008, Beltrán Leyva was arrested by the

Mexican Army The Mexican Army () is the combined Army, land and Air Force, air branch and is the largest part of the Mexican Armed Forces; it is also known as the National Defense Army. The Army is under the authority of the Secretariat of National Defense o ...

Special Forces in Culiacán, Sinaloa, and imprisoned at the Federal Social Readaptation Center No. 1, Mexico's maximum-security prison. He was extradited to the U.S. in November 2014 for drug trafficking charges. In April 2017, he was sentenced to

life in prison Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment under which the convicted individual is to remain incarcerated for the rest of their natural life (or until pardoned or commuted to a fixed term). Crimes that result in life imprisonment are co ...

and ordered to

forfeit Forfeit or forfeiture may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Forfeit'', a 2007 thriller film starring Billy Burke * "Forfeit", a song by Chevelle from '' Wonder What's Next'' * '' Forfeit/Fortune'', a 2008 album by Crooked Fingers ...

US$529 million to the U.S. government.

Early life and career

Alfredo Beltrán was born in La Palma, Badiraguato, Sinaloa, Mexico on January 21, 1971. According to the United States Department of the Treasury, he has an alternative date of birth, February 15, 1951. He was nicknamed "El Mochomo" (English: The Desert Ant). He formed the Beltrán Leyva Cartel along with his brothers Héctor, Carlos and

. Alfredo and his brothers worked closely with Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán Loera, the leader of the

Sinaloa Cartel The Sinaloa Cartel (, , after the native Sinaloa region), also known as the ''CDS'', the ''Guzmán-Loera Organization'', the ''Federation'', the ''Sinaloa Cartel'', or the Pacific Cartel, is a large, drug trafficking transnational organized cri ...

. The Beltrán Leyva brothers trafficked narcotics to the U.S. since the 1990s with the help of the Sinaloa Cartel. In its heyday, the Beltrán Leyva Cartel dominated drug trafficking operations in western Mexico. Alfredo was responsible for managing multi-ton shipments of cocaine and methamphetamine from South America and Mexico to the U.S. from the 1990s to 2014, the year he was indicted. He obtained his cocaine supplies from South American groups and transported them to Mexico by air, land, and/or water. Once the drugs were in Mexico, the Beltrán Leyva Cartel distributed them to strategic points in Mexico before they reached the U.S. His criminal group often used violent means, including murders, kidnappings, and tortures, to continue their drug trafficking operations. In 2008, the Beltrán Leyva Cartel broke away from the Sinaloa Cartel. After Alfredo was arrested, the Beltrán Leyva brothers blamed "El Chapo" for his capture and retaliated by ordering the murder of Edgar Guzmán López, son of Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán Loera. This sparked a war between the Sinaloa Cartel and the Beltrán Leyva Cartel, which allied itself with

Los Zetas Los Zetas (, Spanish for "The Zs") is a Mexican criminal syndicate and designated terrorist organization, known as one of the most dangerous of Mexico's drug cartels. They are known for engaging in brutally violent " shock and awe" tactics suc ...

Arrest and imprisonment

Beltrán Leyva was arrested by the

in Culiacán, Sinaloa, with three members of his security circle on January 21, 2008, with two suitcases filled with $900,000 in cash and luxury watches. At the scene, the police discovered 20 fragmentation grenades, rifles, automatic weapons, and 40 bullet-resistant vest, eight which had a FEDA, the acronym of "Arturo's Special Forces" (Spanish: Fuerzas Especiales de Arturo). Authorities also found an unspecified amount of cash in one of his homes. He was then flown to

Mexico City Mexico City is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Mexico, largest city of Mexico, as well as the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North America. It is one of the most important cultural and finan ...

and imprisoned at the Federal Social Readaptation Center No. 1 (also known as "Altiplano"), Mexico's maximum-security prison. Édgar Eusebio Millán Gómez, top commander of Mexico's national federal police and spokesman for the arrest, was murdered five months later. Mexican investigators believed that he was killed in retaliation for the capture of Alfredo. On October 14, 2014, a federal court rejected Alfredo's writ of ''amparo'' (effectively equivalent to an

injunction An injunction is an equitable remedy in the form of a special court order compelling a party to do or refrain from doing certain acts. It was developed by the English courts of equity but its origins go back to Roman law and the equitable rem ...

) preventing his extradition to the United States. The court rejected it under the rationale that it believed that the former drug lord met all the legal requirements for his extradition.

Kingpin Act sanction

On December 3, 2009, the

United States Department of the Treasury The Department of the Treasury (USDT) is the Treasury, national treasury and finance department of the federal government of the United States. It is one of 15 current United States federal executive departments, U.S. government departments. ...

sanctioned Alfredo under the

Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act The Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act, better known as the Kingpin Act, is landmark Federal government of the United States, federal legislation in the United States intended to address Illegal drug trade, international narcotics traffic ...

(sometimes referred to simply as the "Kingpin Act"), for his involvement in drug trafficking along with twenty-one other international criminals and ten foreign entities. The act prohibited U.S. citizens and companies from doing any kind of business activity with him, and virtually froze all his assets in the U.S.

Extradition

On November 15, 2014, Alfredo was

extradited In an extradition, one jurisdiction delivers a person accused or convicted of committing a crime in another jurisdiction, into the custody of the other's law enforcement. It is a cooperative law enforcement procedure between the two jurisdic ...

to the United States. He was appointed to make his court appearance in Washington, D.C. in a session direct by U.S. judge

Alan Kay Alan Curtis Kay (born May 17, 1940) published by the Association for Computing Machinery 2012 is an American computer scientist who pioneered work on object-oriented programming and windowing graphical user interface (GUI) design. At Xerox ...

for his pending drug trafficking offenses. On November 17 through his lawyer, he pleaded not guilty for conspiracy to import large shipments of cocaine, heroin, marijuana, and methamphetamine from Mexico to the U.S.

Trial and conviction

Alfredo's trial was scheduled to begin on February 8, 2016. He was represented by prominent criminal defense attorney Angel Eduardo Balarezo of Washington, D.C. On February 23, Alfredo pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon of the District of Columbia to participating in international drug trafficking operations. On June 28, the prosecution issued a preliminary forfeit order and requested Alfredo to pay up to $US10 billion, which the government estimated he had generated through his drug trafficking schemes. He was sentenced to

on April 5, 2017, and ordered to

US$529 million. The amount was based on the proceeds he made for shipping at least 27.9 tons of narcotics between 2000 and 2012. Alfredo's defense asked the judge to reduce his sentence to 25 years because their client had accepted his role in providing assistance to his brother Arturo to sell cocaine in Culiacán knowing that the drugs would end up in the U.S. Alfredo denied being involved in drug shipments to the U.S. and told the plaintiff that his brother was the true leader of Beltrán Leyva Cartel. The judge denied the defense's request because he stated that Alfredo did not accept full responsibility of his actions. In June 2022, Beltran Leyva was transferred from United States Penitentiary, Hazleton to

ADX Florence United States Penitentiary, Administrative Maximum Facility (abbreviated as USP Florence ADMAX; commonly known as ADX Florence, Florence Supermax, and the Alcatraz of the Rockies) is a United States federal prison in Fremont County, Colorado, op ...

References