The leader of the Mexican “H-2” drug cartel has been hauled into a Brooklyn courtroom to face narcotrafficking charges, federal prosecutors said Monday.
Jesus Ricardo Patron Sanchez, 39, was arraigned Saturday in Brooklyn Federal Court, accused of taking the reins of a trafficking operation that pumped hundreds of kilos of heroin, cocaine and meth into the U.S. every month from 2013 to 2017.
Patron Sanchez, also known as “H-3,” took over after his brother, Juan Francisco Patron Sanchez, or “H-2,” was killed in 2017 when Mexican marines blew apart the cartel’s headquarters with a helicopter-mounted minigun.
His reign didn’t last long — he was jailed by Mexican authorities in February 2019.
Patron Sanchez was the successor to El Chapo ally-turned-rival Hector Beltran-Leyva, the original “H,” prosecutors say, who along with his brothers split off from Chapo’s Sinaloa Cartel in 2008. Beltran-Leyva died in 2018.
“As alleged in the indictment and court filings, Sanchez was one of the principal leaders of the H-2 Drug Trafficking Organization, a brutally violent transnational criminal organization that flooded American streets with dangerous drugs and protected its operations through murder and corruption,” U.S. Attorney John Durham said.
The H-2 Cartel ran several distribution cells in New York, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Ohio, Minnesota and North Carolina, and also trafficked in thousands of pounds of pot, the feds allege.
Patron Sanchez, who also goes by the nicknames “Diabolic,” “Vela,” “James Bond” and “Xmen,” worked closely with his brother to keep track of drug shipments, how much money was coming in and where authorities were conducting raids, the feds allege.
He also conspired to kill rival cartel members, the feds allege. One intercepted communication from March 1, 2016 concerned how his brother killed a Sinaloa Cartel hit man as revenge for an earlier murder, then sent around a photo of the hit man’s decapitated corpse, the feds allege.
The U.S. Attorney’s office in Brooklyn has handled several high-profile Mexican cartel cases in recent years, securing a jury conviction against Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman in 2019 after a blockbuster trial.
Prosecutors in Brooklyn won a guilty verdict against Genaro Garcia Luna, Mexico’s former top cop, in a 2023 corruption trial.
Sinaloa co-founder Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada Garcia also faces international drug trafficking charges in Brooklyn Federal Court.
Patron Sanchez, who’s charged with continuing criminal enterprise, narcotics trafficking and firearms charges, faces the possibility of mandatory life in prison if he’s convicted. He was ordered held without bail Saturday.
His lawyer declined comment Monday.