High-Ranking Sinaloa Cartel Affiliate Indicted In Chicago: Authorities

CHICAGO — A grand jury in Chicago this week returned an indictment charging a high-ranking affiliate of the Sinaloa Cartel for importing fentanyl, heroin and other drugs to the U.S., authorities said.

Ceferino Espinoza Angulo, 43, is charged with drug conspiracy and gun offenses and faces 30 years to life in prison, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, which added he is believed to be living in Mexico but there is a U.S. warrant for his arrest.

“Stopping Mexican cartels from poisoning our communities with fentanyl and other narcotics is a top priority of this Administration,” Supervisory Official Antoinette Bacon, of the department’s Criminal Division, said in a news release about the indictment Monday. “Today’s indictment demonstrates that the Criminal Division is relentless in its pursuit of the drug traffickers who profit at the expense of the American people.”

Espinoza Angulo hired dozens of gunmen in Mexico to protect the sons of former Sinaloa Cartel head Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman Loera, according to the department. Espinoza Angulo also conspired to make, distribute and import fentanyl, heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and ecstasy, and illegally possessed a machinegun, authorities said.