Mexican gang member sentenced to life in U.S. prison for murders

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - A senior member of a Mexican drug cartel was sentenced to life in prison in a U.S. court on Thursday after authorities implicated him in more than 1,500 murders, including the 2010 execution of a U.S. consulate employee in northern Mexico.

Jose Antonio Acosta Hernandez, 34, pleaded guilty to 11 counts that included murder, conspiracy to kill people in a foreign country and various racketeering, money laundering and drug charges.

U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone in El Paso, Texas, sentenced Hernandez to seven concurrent life terms and three additional consecutive life terms.

"The defendant directed or participated in over 1,500 murders since 2008," according to the plea agreement with Hernandez, who was extradited from Mexico in March.

Hernandezwas in charge of the armed enforcement wing of the Juarez Drug Cartel, which had formed an alliance with the Barrio Azteca drug gang that operated in Texas and Mexico to control the Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico drug trafficking, prosecutors said in the court papers.

Ciudad Juarez has served as a major route for smuggling narcotics into the United States.

He ordered his men to kill members of a rival gang at a January 2010 birthday party in Ciudad Juarez that killed 16 and ordered a car bombing that killed four individuals including two Mexican police officers, the plea said.

Prosecutors also said that the three people linked to the U.S. consulate in Ciudad Juarez were murdered by members of the Barrio Azteca group as part of the agreement with Hernandez.

U.S.