El Chino Antrax pays thousands of dollars to the United States

Translated by Otis B Fly-Wheel for Borderland Beat from a Zetatijuana article

[ Subject Matter: El Chino Antrax, Jose Rodrigo Arechinga Gamboa
Recommendation: No prior subject matter knowledge required]

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El China Antrax, in a prologue to his sentence, paid 100,000 dollars to the Government of the United States. In total the drug trafficker will have to pay a million dollars, as part of his guilty plea deal with the Attorney General.

Reporter: Ines Garcia Ramos

A million dollars, that is the figure that the United States Government puts on the fortune of Jose Rodrigo Arechiga Gamboa "El Chino" Antrax, obtained and saved during his years in the service of the Sinaloa Cartel.

Imprisoned since December of 2013 in Holland, extradited to the United States in July of 2014 and declared guilty in May of 2015, "El Chino Antrax is at the point of being sentenced for cocaine and marijuana trafficking in the San Diego, California Federal Court.

As part of the judicial process against him, the boss of "Los Antrax", armed wing of the Sinaloa Cartel, accepted to give a million US dollars to the Government of the United States, after having plead guilty, on the 15th of May of 2015.

The seizure of goods is one of the sanctions imposed by the United States Code in its section on criminal embargo when it comes to property obtained directly or indirectly from the result of the commission of a crime.

In this case, they are the proceeds from narco trafficking, an activity that he has admitted carrying out.

This order of embargo was made effective on the 27th of August of 2015, when he went before Judge Dana M Sabraw, Federal Judge in charge of the cases against Serafin Zambada Ortiz, son of Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, leader of the Sinaloa Cartel.

The installments

On the 3rd of September 2015, a month before he is sentenced, the Court of South California received a payment of $100,000 made for Arechiga Gamboa in the form of a cheque from Chase bank in Arizona.

The cheque was made out to United States Marshall Service, a special security body that is in charge of, among other activities, transferring prisoners and apprehension of highly dangerous criminals.

The Lawyer of "El Chino Antrax", Frank J. Ragen appeared to submit the cheque and receive a receipt from the United States Government, which establishes that this is a primary payment.

The Federal Court documents, whose copies Zeta has, indicate that the amount was deposited to the Fund of Seized Assets, this capital is under administration and use of, the Department of Justice to cover costs associated both with the legal formalities of seizures, embargo actions and even to fund research.

It also establishes the current debt as 900,000 dollars remaining to be paid. The payment of the outstanding debt must be settled before or at the moment of sentencing. Payments received after that date will be subject to accumulated interest.

In the order of embargo, it has been established that if Arechiga Gamboa doesn't pay the balance on time, the United States Government could, at any moment, conduct a search to locate, identify and directly dispose of any confiscated assets for a value not to exceed 900,000 dollars.

Until the 30th of September of 2015, with 16 days until his sentencing, "El Chino Antrax" has not made any further payments towards the remaining total.

  Chino Antrax Partial Disposition BB2015 ChivisM

Charges dropped

In exchange for a million dollars, the United States accepted a reduction in the charges at the moment of sentencing and maintain only charges of conspiracy to traffic marijuana and cocaine. ( Otis: funny that since the Sinaloa Cartel provides nearly all the heroin consumed in the United States ).

These are the terms agreed to in the guilty plea of Arechinga Gamboa, accepted by the prosecutor in charge of the case, Adam L. Braveman. The document was processed on May 20th 2015.

With that, "El Chino Antrax" may end up facing additional charges of conspiracy to traffic Crystal Meth. It was also established that "there will be no complimentary judicial processes added to the order of embargo already running.

After more than a year in prison, Arechinga Gamboa admitted that since May 2005 he has worked in the trafficking of drugs from Mexico to the United States, under the orders of the Sinaloa Cartel.

He didn't only admit to being the coordinator of the Cartel for Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman and Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, but also participating " in acts and violent threats" against rival groups to maintain the power over other Cartels.

Waiting for sentencing

Even though the maximum penalty for the crime that the Sinaloa Cartel member admitted to before the Federal Court, is life imprisonment and a ten million dollar fine, the fact that Arechinga Gamboa plead guilty is an element in his favor.

A sentence of ten years is the minimum for the crime of criminal association for the trafficking of narcotics, with a conditional five years of probation on release.

After completing his sentence, "El Chino Antrax" could be deported to Mexico, although he stated that "nobody has made promises or offered other rewards in exchange for his plea bargain, there is a possibility that he will remain in the US in the witness protection program.

Until the 16th of October, the date established for his sentencing, the Sicario of 34 years, he will stay in the Metropolitan Correctional Centre in San Diego, together with a thousand other inmates.

It will be the first time that "El Chino Antrax" has returned to Court since the escape of El Chapo Guzman from the Altiplano no.1 Cefereso. While for Serafin Zambada Ortiz, son of El Mayo Zambada, had the 4th of November fixed for his trial result.

Original article in Spanish at Zetatijuana