2 alleged Mexican drug cartel members plead guilty – Houston Chronicle
A member of one of Mexico’s most notorious drug operations pleaded guilty Tuesday to threatening to kill two U.S. federal agents who were cornered and held at gunpoint by members of the Gulf cartel.
Juan Carlos de La Cruz Reyna pleaded guilty to two counts of threatening to assault and murder a federal officer.
De La Cruz Reyna was one of 10 alleged members of various cartels extradited to the U.S. from Mexico late last year. Another alleged Gulf cartel member, Ruben Sauceda-Rivera, pleaded guilty Tuesday to money laundering. Both are to be sentenced July 3.
Sauceda-Rivera, 42, and de La Cruz Reyna, 34, were indicted in 2002 in Brownsville. Sauceda-Rivera originally faced 11 drug trafficking counts and one count of money laundering. The drug trafficking charges will be dropped in exchange for the plea on the money laundering charge, which carries a sentence of up to 20 years in prison.
