BROWNSVILLE, Texas (AP) - A federal jury in Brownsville has convicted a Gulf cartel manager of conspiring to possess and import cocaine and marijuana.
Juan Roberto Rincon-Rincon was found guilty Friday. He rose from the cartel boss' right-hand man to plaza boss, controlling a lucrative stretch of smuggling routes across the Rio Grande from Texas.
Jurors deliberated for more than two hours.
He was captured by Border Patrol last October with three other men near the river. He told authorities he was fleeing cartel infighting. Prosecutors alleged that in his time as plaza boss, he oversaw the smuggling of 1,100 pounds of marijuana per week into Texas and collected taxes from those moving additional loads.
