The US Marine Who Led a Mexican Drug Smuggling Operation

"HEARST" for Borderland Beat

Roberto Salazar, a US Marine was caught leading a Mexican drug smuggling group during his military service where he recruited discharged Marines into acting as drug runners. This week a judge sentenced him to 12 years in prison.

Outside of an American federal court, U.S. Attorney Randy Grossman told reporters “Roberto Salazar served as a Marine, but he was also leading a secret life as a drug trafficker and a leader of a drug-trafficking organization."

"He was supposed to be protecting and defending our country, but instead he was bringing tremendous harm to Americans by importing fentanyl and other deadly, dangerous drugs into the United States.”

How It all Began

Throughout his childhood, Roberto Salazar II split his time between the US and Mexico, often traveling into the Mexican border city of Tijuana

His defense attorney Andrew Nietor claimed Roberto was indoctrinated into the drug world by his father, Roberto Salazar I, who was “both abusive and absent.” When Roberto was just 9 or 10 years old, his father was deported back to Mexico. 

Roberto’s trips across the border took on a new nature in 2013, when 16-year old Roberto began smuggling humans into the US. Roberto switched to smuggling drugs, specifically heroin, later that year. 

When Roberto turned 18, he began attending Southwestern College, located in Chula Vista, California. There, he recruited one of his college classmates into drug running for him. 

Over the last two years, Roberto had grown to favor a particular smuggling method in which vehicles stashed with drugs were driven across the US border, through legal ports of entry.

Roberto preferred to utilize BMW vehicles which were known to have a “unique engine compartment” that was perfect for stashing drugs inside. The design of this engine compartment appeared innocuous and was often overlooked by US border agents. 

Roberto focused on obtaining the right vehicles for the scheme and paid others, such as his college classmate, to do the actual driving. 

During drug runs, the drivers took Roberto’s vehicles across the border, parking them at a specific auto shop in Tijuana. Workers at the auto shop loaded up the vehicles with drugs and then the drivers would take the vehicles back across the border. 

In 2016, when Roberto was 19, his college classmate got busted at the San Ysidro border crossing with 5 pounds of cocaine and more than 20 pounds of methamphetamine - all hidden inside a vehicle. Roberto’s involvement with the drug shipment, however, never came to light and he continued to recruit more drivers. 

The Drug Smuggling Marine

In 2018, Roberto, now 21-year old, joined the US Marines. According to US prosecutors, the only time Roberto ever paused his drug running schemes was during Marine Corp boot camp and he resumed them shortly after boot camp ended. 

He was eventually stationed in San Diego, at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar where he worked as a radio operator. He continued managing his drug smuggling operation as an active duty US Marine. 

Roberto’s attorney claims that he only resumed drug trafficking due to financial concerns. The Los Angeles Times writes that during this period, Roberto gained full custody of his daughter. Roberto’s lawyer claims he began smuggling again because he was struggling to make ends meet "while living on the wages of an enlisted Marine.” 

Roberto’s plea agreement detailed how he would sometimes forgo using drivers and make the smuggling trip across the border himself. 

In 2020, Roberto commissioned a Mexican musician to write a song about his life and success in drug smuggling. 

This type of commission is common practice in the Mexican underworld. Bands are often paid to write a narcocorrido, a style of Mexican ballad which praises a crime figure’s successes, by the crime lords themselves. 

According to prosecutors, Roberto suggested specific lyrics like “I wanted to study and I became a soldier, but I liked the fast life better” to the musician. The San Diego Tribune adds that Roberto wanted the song to brag about his abilities as a US soldier. Whether the commissioned song was ever released is currently unclear. 

In 2021, Roberto took notice of two recently discharged US Marines. He approached them and eventually recruited them to become drivers in his operation. The Justice Department’s press release details that Roberto paid the former Marines $2000 USD for each successful smuggling run. 

One of the former Marines moved five shipments successfully across the border. The other made a number of trips but was caught in September 2021, at the San Ysidro border crossing with 14 pounds of fentanyl. The US Attorney’s Office released the image above which shows the package of fentanyl that border officers found hidden in the vehicle. 

It All Catches Up To You

In January 2022, one of Roberto’s drug runners was attempting to make a heroin delivery in Las Vegas when police caught on to him. In a desperate move, the drug runner left a kilogram of heroin on the shelf of a grocery store and fled from the cops, 

The San Diego Tribune writes that Roberto Salazar was “personally involved” in the Vegas heroin deal and suggests that this incident ultimately led to Roberto’s undoing. 

Then things really began to fall apart for Roberto. One of his couriers was pulled over by an officer on Interstate 5 in Oceanside and caught with more than 13 pounds of fentanyl in his car. Another courier was stopped at the Otay Mesa port of entry with more than 17 pounds of fentanyl in his car.

Before the year ended, 26-year old Roberto Salazar was arrested on several drug-trafficking charges. 

In October 2022, Roberto pled guilty in to conspiring to distribute controlled substances, including heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine and fentanyl, and to importing fentanyl into the United States from Mexico. 

In April 2023, Roberto was sentenced to 12 years in prison 

Grossman, the U.S. attorney, declined to say whether Salazar’s trafficking group was connected with any of Mexico’s large cartels.

NCIS Special Agent in Charge Todd Battaglia said that “Mr. Salazar betrayed his oath to the Marine Corps and posed a significant threat to our national security by participating in an illegal operation to smuggle fentanyl into the United States."

Sources: Justice.gov, San Diego Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Associated Press