NEW YORK – A Queens, New York man was sentenced to more than 18 years in prison for importing methamphetamine and money laundering conspiracies. According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Javier Algredo Vazquez, 56, obtained chemicals used to make fentanyl and meth for one of the largest and most dangerous drug cartels in Mexico, the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG). The chemicals included enough precursors to produce more than 700 million doses of methamphetamine and more than two billion doses of fentanyl. After the cartel received the precursors and manufactured the drugs, court documents say the fentanyl and meth were then trafficked in the U.S.
In a news release, the Department of Justice shared a picture of 24,500 kilograms of methylamine hydrochloride purchased by Vazquez and his co-conspirators that was seized at the Port of Oakland, California, on June 8, 2021.
Algredo Vazquez also was found guilty of transferring millions of dollars from the U.S. to chemical suppliers in China and India to procure the chemicals.
The U.S. Department of Justice considers CJNG to be one of the five most dangerous transnational criminal organizations in the world, responsible for trafficking many tons of cocaine, meth, and fentanyl-laced heroin into the United States, as well as for violence and a significant number of deaths in Mexico. It’s offering a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to the arrest of the cartel’s leader, Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, also known as El Mencho.
