Arizona cartel leader who trafficked guns via Facebook sentenced to 11 years

A 21-year-old Roll, Arizona man who led a cross-border hit squad while coordinating firearms trafficking for the Sinaloa Cartel via Facebook was sentenced Monday to 130 months in federal prison.

Jorge Garcia Martinez pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting the receipt of firearms for use in a drug trafficking crime.

Prosecutors said Garcia Martinez, used a Facebook alias to recruit straw buyers to purchase pistols from licensed Arizona dealers in 2023 and 2024.

In one operation on June 21, 2024, he directed co-conspirators through real-time Facebook messages as five pistols were purchased, transferred in a McDonald’s parking lot in San Luis, and hidden in a vehicle headed for Mexico.

Customs officers caught the guns at the port of entry.

Court records show Garcia Martinez was more than a gun runner. Federal prosecutors identified him as the leader of Fuerzas Especiales Jackson, a sicario cell operating in San Luis, Sonora, that carried out kidnappings, torture and killings on behalf of Los Salazares, a Sinaloa Cartel faction.

He was arrested Oct. 7, 2024, after investigators uncovered a planned retaliatory attack against a rival group.

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