AUSTIN, Texas, (Reuters) – A federal judge in Texas yesterday sentenced two members of the Los Zetas Mexican criminal cartel to life in prison for smuggling thousands of kilograms of marijuana and hundreds of assault rifles across the border, prosecutors said.
Emilio Villalobos-Alcala, 29, and Jose Eluid Lugo-Lopez, 27, were convicted last year by a federal jury and handed life sentences by U.S. District Judge Alia Ludlum in Del Rio, Texas.
The two brought large quantities of marijuana from Mexico into the United States and smuggled firearms purchased in Texas to Mexico inside hidden compartments in cars and trucks, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas said.
The two used threats of murder and violence to coerce people into having their names used in firearms purchases, with the weapons then smuggled across the border by the criminal cartel, prosecutors said.
