A federal judge sentenced a former drug trafficker who worked with the Sinaloa Cartel to 13 years in prison for conspiring to distribute cocaine in the United States.
Jaime Antonio Mandujano-Eudave, 61, of Mexico, had worked with the Sinaloa Cartel from 1998 to about 2012 to coordinate the shipment of cocaine by boat from Colombia to Mexico, according to court records.
Mandujano-Eudave provided GPS coordinates to the boats’ crew members to arrange meetings in the Pacific Ocean, where the cocaine-stuffed boats from Colombia would meet boats under the control of the Sinaloa Cartel and offload the cocaine. Once the cocaine arrived in Mexico, other members of Sinaloa Cartel would transport it to the U.S., according to court records.
Prosecutors said Mandujano-Eudave knew that the cocaine would be sent to the U.S. for sale.
In October 2009, the U.S Coast Guard intercepted a ship named Fiona just north of Clarion Island, Mexico. Crew members set the ship on fire, but the U.S. Coast Guard was able to recover 1,100 pounds (500 kilograms) of cocaine from the water, prosecutors said.
In August 2014, authorities in Spain arrested Mandujano-Eudave at the request of U.S. He was extradited from Spain to the U.S. in February 2015.
Mandujano-Eudave pleaded guilty March 8 to one count of conspiracy to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine, according to court records.
