SAN DIEGO — For the better part of a decade, federal prosecutions of Mexican drug cartel leaders carried out in San Diego have focused largely on the Sinaloa Cartel, and before that the Arellano Félix Organization, the two groups that have historically dominated the lucrative Tijuana-San Diego smuggling route.
But last month, a federal judge sentenced two former high-ranking members of the Cártel Jalisco Nueva Generación, part of an ongoing prosecution against at least 12 people charged with drug trafficking and money laundering crimes. The case may be one of the first local prosecutions to target prominent members of the CJNG, one of Mexico's most ruthless cartels that has grown in influence over the last dozen or so years.
Prosecutors have played the case close to the vest, keeping most details out of public court records. And while the indictment deals with criminal conduct carried out several years ago, the prosecution reflects the CJNG's continued rise to power, both across Mexico and specifically in Baja California.
