The leader of a large-scale drug trafficking organization was sentenced in a federal court in El Paso Thursday to life in prison.
According to court documents, Jorge Sanchez Morales aka “Capulina,” 47, ran a drug trafficking organization, spanning from Mexico to El Paso and on to Atlanta, from 2002 to 2019. In the early 2000s, Sanchez Morales worked out of Atlanta, trafficking cocaine and other drugs with Sinaloa Cartel operatives.
In 2014, Sanchez Morales returned to Mexico to run his organization, which would then primarily traffic methamphetamine, often in liquid form. Sanchez Morales’ organization imported liquid methamphetamine from Juarez, Mexico into El Paso, and then transported it to Atlanta concealed in the fuel tanks of semi-tractors. In Atlanta, the liquid methamphetamine was converted to a crystalline form and distributed. Sanchez Morales oversaw the operation on behalf of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, otherwise known as CJNG.
On Nov. 8, 2022, an El Paso jury found Sanchez Morales guilty of conspiracies to import and possess with intent to distribute cocaine and methamphetamine, conspiracy to commit international money laundering, and laundering monetary instruments. The court sentenced Sanchez Morales to life in prison for the drug conspiracies and to 20 years imprisonment for conspiring and laundering monetary instruments. The court ordered the sentences to run concurrently.
The DEA, HSI, United States Border Patrol, El Paso Sheriff’s Office, Texas Department of Public Safety, and Socorro Police Department investigated the case.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Steven Spitzer and Nathan Brown prosecuted the case.
