Mexican security forces have launched a crackdown on the drug cartels who are fighting a bitter battle that has claimed tens of thousands of lives since 2006 (AFP)

A former leader of the Beltran Leyva Mexican drug-trafficking cartel that bears his name was sentenced on Wednesday to life in a U.S. prison for participating in an international narcotics trafficking conspiracy, the Justice Department said. “HSI and our law enforcement partners, both in the United States and around the world, will not waver in our resolve to dismantle and cripple violent drug organizations, and remove their leadership.”

Beltran Leyva, 46, was indicted on Aug. 24, 2012, for conspiracy to distribute cocaine and methamphetamine for importation into the United States. At his plea hearing and during pre-trial conferences, the government proffered evidence that from the early 1990s until his indictment in August 2014, the defendant was a leader of the Beltran Leyva Organization, a global criminal enterprise responsible for importing multi-ton quantities of cocaine and methamphetamine into the United States. US District Court Judge Richard Leon handed down the life sentence, along with a $529,200,000 forfeiture amount based on an “extremely conservative” estimate of the amount of cocaine Beltran Leyva moved to the border for importation to the US. “For well over a decade, the defendant commanded a major Mexican drug trafficking organization that imported ton-quantities of cocaine and methamphetamine into the United States and led a campaign of violence and fear that gripped communities across North America,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Blanco. At sentencing, the government’s evidence showed that the organization used weapons and carried out acts of violence, including murders, kidnappings, tortures and violent collections of drug debts, in order to sustain the drug importation operation.
Mexican Beltrán Leyva Cartel drug lord Alfredo Beltrán Leyva is sentenced to life in prison and ordered to forfeit $US529,200,000.