Gallegos, 53, fled North Texas for a fortified ranch in Durango in northwest Mexico several years ago. He is responsible for handling the importation of heroin, cocaine and other drugs into the U.S. for the Sinaloa cartel, the DEA said in federal court records.
Authorities did not identify the social media platform used. Photos of the messages included in the criminal complaint indicate it was Instagram. A juvenile dealer, for example, messaged Villanueva about obtaining some pills. Martinez, a close associate of Gallegos, sold Xanax, oxycodone and fentanyl pills on the dark web to his U.S. customers and shipped about 200,000 Xanax pills per month, prosecutors said.Martinez has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial. His attorney could not be reached.
“Drugs manufactured by the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco Cartel often end up being marketed by dealers using social media platforms to relentlessly expand their business and deceptively sell fake prescription pills directly to young people and teenagers,” Milgram said during her testimony. While there are more than 200 criminal cells, two stand taller — Sinaloa and Jalisco — in part because of their adoption of social media and technology. Both are offshoots of the Guadalajara Cartel. Both cartels are named for their respective states on Mexico’s Pacific Coast.“You are looking at two cartels that have reorganized themselves, so why would you want to shoot yourself in the foot, so to speak.
She points to “dramatic levels of corruption and dramatic levels of infiltration of the cartels into judicial and law enforcement institutions in Mexico” that make it nearly impossible for the Mexican government to help the U.S. in the drug war.