Mexican cartel leader gets life in prison for role in Texas murder-for-hire plot

LAREDO, Texas - A leader of the Cartel Del Noreste has been ordered to spend the rest of his life in federal prison for his role in a murder-for-hire plot that brought three hitmen into Laredo, Texas, the U.S. District Attorney's Office said.

Noe Gonzalez-Martinez, 41, was convicted in 2023 of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine, murder-for-hire conspiracy, murder for hire, conspiracy to kidnap, possession of firearms in furtherance of a drug trafficking-related crime and interstate travel in aid of racketeering.

What we know:

District Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos ordered Gonzalez-Martinez to spend life in federal prison plus 60 months.

Before the sentencing, the court heard about Gonzalez-Martinez's role in organizing the crimes.

Gonzalez-Martinez is a Mexican citizen living in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexico, prosecutors said.

What they're saying:

"Drug trafficking and violence go hand-in-hand, and this is particularly true in the case of cartels, as this case shows," U.S. District Attorney Nicholas Ganjei said. "The Department of Justice is committed to preventing the cartels from ever gaining a foothold in America, and the vigorous prosecution of their leadership is a critical component of that. Through the conviction of Mr. Gonzalez-Martinez, the Southern District of Texas has dealt a major blow to the CDN cartel. This is, however, just the beginning. SDTX is pursuing every opportunity and every avenue to dismantle cartel operations on both sides of the border. Stay tuned."

Kidnapping and murder-for-hire trial

The backstory:

Prosecutors said Gonzalez-Martinez and other cartel members came to Laredo in September 2021 to plan the kidnapping and murder of a person they believed stole from the cartel.

Gonzalez-Martinez then provided guns and a vehicle to the hitmen who were supposed to kidnap the person they believed stole the drugs and bring them to Mexico so cartel members could make an example of him, prosecutors said.

Law enforcement arrested the three hitmen before the plot could be carried out.

The three hitmen - Juan Antonio Martinez-Padilla aka Juan Antonio Martinez-Lopez aka Otoniel Martinez-Padilla, 60, Gregorio Gonzalez-Barragan, 34, and Rodolfo Reyna-Zapata, 27, all from Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, previously received sentences of 240, 352, and 352 months, respectively.