A man described by prosecutors as a Mexican cartel enforcer who pleaded guilty to drug trafficking charges and admitted ordering the murder of a police officer in Tijuana, among others, was sentenced Friday to 28 years in federal prison.
Edgar Herrera Pardo was originally indicted in 2019 for his role in Los Cabos, a group of cartel enforcers the U.S. Attorney’s Office says worked to control the border region to ensure drug trafficking continued unabated for Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion, or CJNG.
His plea agreement to charges related to the distribution of heroin and methamphetamine also includes admissions to ordering the murder of a police officer in Tijuana in 2018 and ordering co-conspirators to hang a “narco banner” in Tijuana to intimidate rivals.
A sentencing memorandum filed by federal prosecutors states he also led a group chat that included other Los Cabos members in which the participants “discussed well over 100 murders.”
Prosecutors allege that Los Cabos are also responsible for the 2018 slayings of three San Diego-area teenagers in Tijuana and the killings of at least three police officers. In their sentencing brief, prosecutors say Los Cabos’ role was ensuring CJNG controlled Tijuana to help the cartel import drugs through San Diego’s ports of entry.
Herrera Pardo’s defense attorney, Troy Owens, argued in his sentencing papers for a 10-year sentence and wrote that he has since “vowed to live a law-abiding life.”
Owens wrote that his client didn’t seek out a criminal lifestyle, but became indebted to a criminal organization that paid his ransom after he was kidnapped and tortured.
Herrera Pardo, who is also known by the moniker El Caiman, was arrested in Mexico about four months after he was indicted.
He has already spent around six years in custody, partially in Mexico, partially in the United States. The conviction will result in his deportation after his prison sentence is completed
