A Mexican police officer who helped sell more than $1 billion worth of cocaine for the Sinaloa cartel and tipped off business associate El Chapo has been sentenced to life in prison by a federal court in Texas.
- Arturo Shaws Urquidi, 50, was sentenced last Thursday to life in prison by a Texas federal court.
- The Mexican citizen was a police officer in the state of Chihuahua and joined the Sinaloa cartel.
- Shows that Urquidi was in charge of securing the facilities that the criminal organization used to store cocaine.
- Prosecutors said that during his time with the cartel, the multinational drug trafficking organization shipped more than $1 billion worth of cocaine to the US.
Last week, a Texas court sentenced a former Mexican police officer to life in prison for helping the Sinaloa cartel smuggle $1 billion worth of cocaine into the US.
Arturo Shaws Urquidi, 50, served in the Chihuahua State Police before joining the transnational cartel co-founded by Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán, according to the Justice Department.
Court documents revealed that the Urquidi Show was under the command of Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, who also helped found the criminal organization.
The rogue cop was responsible for securing the property that the cartel used to store thousands of kilos of cocaine smuggled out of tanker trucks. The trucks were also used to transport drug proceeds and weapons to Culiacan, the capital of Sinaloa.
Arturo Shaws Urquidi, a former police officer in Mexico, was sentenced to life in prison last Thursday for his role as an aid to the Sinaloa drug cartel. The 50-year-old worked under Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, who helped Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán found the cartel.
Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada (pictured), who co-founded the Sinaloa cartel with El Chapo, is still at large.
Federal prosecutors said that during Shaws Urquidis’s involvement with the Sinaloa cartel, the faction extended its criminal activities to the Chihuahua border town of Ciudad Juarez and El Paso, Texas.
The cartel was also involved in a war with the Juarez cartel that resulted in thousands of deaths in Ciudad Juarez and the neighboring state of Durango.
As part of the investigation, federal agents seized hundreds of kilograms of cocaine and thousands of pounds of marijuana across the United States. Authorities also confiscated millions of dollars of cartels profits that were supposed to be smuggled back into Mexico.
The investigation into Shaw Urquidi’s links to the Sinaloa cartel also led to the arrest of 36-year-old Mario Iglesias-Villegas, who had been a member of the organization since 2008 and led an assassination squad until his arrest in 2012.
Both The Urquidi Show and Iglesias-Villegas pleaded guilty in October 2021 to conspiracy to violate the Racketeering Influenced Corrupt Organizations Act.
They were convicted of conspiracy to possess cocaine and marijuana, conspiracy to import cocaine and marijuana, conspiracy to launder money, and conspiracy to possess firearms in drug dealing.
“Show Urquidi’s sentencing is yet another blow to members of the Sinaloa cartel and highlights that the long arm of the law extends beyond international borders,” said El Paso Field Office Special Agent Jeffrey R. Downey.
According to the DEA’s 2020 National Drug Threat Assessment, the Sinaloa Cartel, along with the next-generation rival Jalisco Cartel, were the two largest drug suppliers to the US.
When El Chapo was in prison, the Sinaloa cartel controlled the smuggling routes into the country through Arizona and California. The cartel tightly controlled drug trafficking and sales in the United States, with a shocking impact in 24 states and Washington, DC.
The State Department is offering a $15 million reward for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, who co-founded the Sinaloa cartel with Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán.
Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman
The organization is currently led by El Chapo’s sons—Joaquín “El Chapito” Guzmán-López, Ovidio Guzmán-López, Iván Arkivaldo Guzmán Salazar, and Jesús Alfredo Guzmán Salazar—as well as Zambada, for whom the United States is offering $15 million. reward for information leading to his arrest and/or conviction.
Zambada, who has never been arrested, told the Mexican news magazine Proceso in a 2018 interview that the thought of being caught creates a feeling of “panic”, but he wouldn’t rule out suicide if it meant avoiding jail time.
“I don’t know if I would have had the courage to commit suicide,” he said. “I would like to think that I would kill myself.”
When asked if he thought he would be arrested, Zambada replied, “Any time or never.”