A former leader of the Guerreros Unidos cartel – which has been linked to the disappearance of 43 students in Mexico – was sentenced to 11 years in prison Wednesday by a federal judge in Chicago.
Adan Casarrubias Salgado, 56, had faced a potential life sentence when he was extradited to Chicago from Mexico in the spring of 2022 to face charges that he presided over the deliveries of heroin and cash for the cartel.
Now, he’ll probably be released in seven years after getting credit for the time he spent in custody pending trial, U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly noted at Salgado’s sentencing.
He will then be deported to Mexico, where he could face other charges.
The Guerreros Unidos cartel, considered a smaller player in Mexico’s sprawling industry for illicit narcotics, made international headlines when it was connected to the still unsolved kidnappings and suspected murders of 43 teaching students in the town of Iguala in Guerrero state in 2014, the Sun-Times previously reported.
Known as “El Tomate,” Casarrubias Salgado coordinated drug shipments from Guerreros Unidos via hidden compartments on buses that moved between Mexico and Chicago, ordered who would receive quantities of heroin for distribution and coordinated the money from the sale of drugs back to the cartel, prosecutors have said.
Casarrubias Salgado pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute controlled substances and money laundering earlier this year. He admitted to coordinating the distribution of Mexican heroin in the Chicago area and the shipment of money back to Mexico between April and June 2015 after his brother was arrested by authorities in Mexico.
In exchange for his plea, Casarrubias Salgado faced a 10-20 year prison term, with federal prosecutors recommending 17.5 years behind bars.
“This defendant … was primarily responsible for interacting with the Chicago crew, more specifically directing the Chicago crew,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Erskine told Judge Kennelly during the hearing.
In announcing the sentence, Kennelly said he was considering Casarrubias Salgado’s age and that he had already spent seven years in prison in Mexico for essentially the same crime before he was extradited.
The judge noted that Casasrubio has claimed he was subjected to brutal torture by Mexican authorities, including electrocution, while in their custody.
In his statement to the court, Casarrubias Salgado said he deeply feared being deported back to Mexico and said he believed he would have been murdered by Mexican authorities had he not been extradited to the United States.
Casarrubias Salgado said Mexican authorities murdered two of his brothers while they were at hospitals in Mexico, and said he believed authorities had previously made an attempt on his own life.
“I am very fearful of going back to Mexico because of violence and a lot of corruption on the part of the government,” Casarrubias Salgado told the court through a translator, adding that authorities there could take anyone’s life “with great ease.”
Casarrubias Salgado said he had previously worked in Chicago as a pizza delivery driver, as a metal worker and planting trees in national parks.
“I was never the head, I never was,” he said. “I never wanted to be a leader.”
He apologized to the United States for “the harm that I have done to this society.”
Casarrubias Salgado’s attorney John Benson said his client had been “providing information,” and said Casarrubias Salgado “is willing to try to cooperate” with American officials.
Guerreros Unidos was founded by his brother, Mario Casarrubias Salgado, who died in Mexican custody in 2021 while serving a decade-long sentence for drug crimes.
Mario Casarrubias Salgado, nicknamed The Handsome Toad or El Sapo Guapo in Spanish, founded the cartel around 2011 along with another brother, Angel “El Mochomo” Casarrubias Salgado, the Sun-Times has reported.
Locally, the cartel was assisted by Pablo Vega Cuevas, who oversaw the Chicago area distribution and sales of the heroin that Guerreros Unidos supplied.
Vega Cuevas, whose brother was also a leader in the cartel before his death in 2014, is still awaiting sentencing in federal court in Chicago on his own crimes in connection with the drug organization after pleading guilty.
In asking the judge for a lenient sentence, Adan Casarrubias Salgado’s attorney told the judge that his client was only involved in the organization for a short time, calling it the “family business,” and said others in the organization bore greater responsibility.
“Mr. Salgado is a fish, there is no question about it… he’s not a big fish, judge,’ the attorney said at the sentencing hearing. Benson argued that others involved in the drug conspiracy who have been sentenced received relatively lenient sentences.
Adan Casarrubias Salgado’s daughter, a United States citizen who has attended college in Chicago, also testified at the hearing that her dad was a “good father” who had always provided her with advice and had been involved in her life despite having been placed in prison in Mexico when she was a young girl.