La Línea Leader 'El 80' Pleads Guilty to Drug Trafficking in US Courtroom

"Anonymous" for Borderland Beat

Carlos Arturo Quintana, 41, alias El Ochenta and/or El 80

Mexican drug lord Carlos Arturo Quintana has pleaded guilty to drug trafficking charges in the United States. Per sentencing guidelines he faces a minimum of 5 years and a maximum of 40 years in prison.

Quintana, the former leader of La Linea, the armed wing of the old Juárez Cartel, will remain in U.S. custody until his sentencing, which has yet to be scheduled.

Quintana started working for La Línea when it was an enforcer group of the old Juarez Cartel, but it quickly expanded into a larger leadership dissolutions in the mid-2010s. Quintana assumed leadership of La Linea in 2015 after the arrest of Jesús Salas Aguayo, alias El Chuyin, but was himself arrested in 2018 and later extradited in 2022.

Court case

On July 23, 2015, a federal grand jury issued a revised indictment involving Carlos Arturo Quintana and 10 co-conspirators. Court documents reveal that in March 2011, a confidential informant (CI) and a second person placed an order for 600 kilograms of marijuana with Elmy Hermosillo Trujillo.

Trujillo was recognized as the individual coordinating large-scale marijuana acquisitions for the Juarez Cartel. The cartel is notorious for trafficking substantial amounts of cocaine, marijuana, and various illegal drugs into the United States annually, especially from the Ciudad Juarez and El Paso border area.

From its inception, the cartel primarily engaged in drug trafficking, but over time, it diversified its criminal operations to include activities such as human trafficking, arms trafficking, kidnapping, extortion, and large-scale theft of commercial gasoline from the Mexican government.

Around March 19, 2011, the confidential informant (CI) and another person, along with additional co-conspirators, encountered Quintana in Gomez Farias, Chihuahua, Mexico. Quintana, clad in a police uniform and driving a marked police vehicle, was joined by other uniformed officers. In the course of this meeting, Quintana and his colleagues transported the 600 kilograms of marijuana using a dump truck. Subsequently, the CI and the other individual affixed a GPS tracking device to the marijuana.

Around March 26, 2011, based on the data received from the GPS tracker, the marijuana was identified at a drug storage facility in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. Mexican law enforcement conducted a search of the premises, leading to a shootout that caused one individual's death, the apprehension of three co-conspirators, and the escape of others. During this operation, authorities seized the marijuana, along with various firearms, radios, and cell phones.

Quintana, recognized as the Police Chief of Namiquipa and the Plaza Boss of the Juarez Cartel, was extradited to the United States in August 2022.

In his plea agreement, Quintana acknowledged his involvement in a conspiracy to distribute 600 kilograms of marijuana in Mexico from February 2011 to March 2011. He admitted awareness that the marijuana would be unlawfully imported into the United States.

At sentencing, Quintana faces not less than five years nor more than 40 years in prison. Raul Corella-Hernandez, Marco Antonio Guzman-Zuniga, Elmy Hermosillo Trujillo, Jorge Olivas Nevarez, Jorge Adrian Ortega-Gallegos, and Guadalupe A Prieto remain fugitives.

Sources: DOJ Press Release; Third Superseding Indictment; Plea Agreement; Borderland Beat Archives