Roberto Salazar II, 26, of San Diego was sentenced for importing fentanyl and for conspiracy to distribute heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine and fentanyl, in accordance with a press release from the US legal professional’s workplace.
Salazar, who pleaded responsible final October, might have confronted as much as life in jail.
He was stationed at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego.
Prosecutors stated that earlier than becoming a member of the corps and whereas on energetic obligation, he and couriers he recruited made dozens of smuggling journeys throughout the border.
Salazar would acquire automobiles that had been pushed to Mexico, the place medicine had been loaded into the engine compartments.
Couriers would then drive them again throughout the border into the US, prosecutors stated.
The scheme started round 2015, authorities stated.
By the time of his arrest final yr, “Salazar had become so involved in drug trafficking that he was commissioning a Mexican songwriter to write a drug ballad known as a ‘narcocorrido about him,” the US legal professional’s workplace stated.
“In one line that Salazar suggested to the songwriter, he boasted: ‘I wanted to study and became a soldier, but I liked the fast life better’,” the workplace stated.
Some of the couriers recruited by Salazar had been former Marines or classmates at Southwestern College in Chula Vista.
“This case involved a Marine who was supposed to protect and defend our country, but instead brought great harm to Americans by trafficking fentanyl and other dangerous drugs,” US Attorney Randy Grossman stated.
“He also betrayed his solemn oath by recruiting other Marines to do the same.”
Source: www.9news.com.au
